Perspective
by vbfandragonballz
Summary: Shot entirely from Vegeta's perspective during the largely unseen three years when he and Bulma get together. Funny and romantic. Incorporates all the actual from the Anime and sticks to characters as set out in DBZ.
1. Chapter 1

(Ok, so wherever the scene was present in the anime I have used the funimation dub lines. If their lines were just too far from the manga (which I consider to be more 'official') then i have tried to blend the two. We're starting from the beginning of the Trunks saga just after the Garlic Jr. Saga [anime] or the Frieza Saga [manga] so all the Nameks have gone to their new home. We are just before the Android saga which led to the Cell saga if you're DBZ crazy enough, that should be all you need to know, if not, here's a quick sum up of the events.

Bulma, Krillin and Gohan went to Namek (Picollo's planet) and teamed up with Vegeta against Frieza.

Goku defeated Frieza by becoming a super saiyan. It looked like he died killing Frieza, but he lived. Bulma invited the Nameks and Vegeta to live with her until their dragonballs could be used. They tried to wish Goku back with the Namek DB's but he refused to return. Vegeta stole a Capsule Corp ship to chase him. 1.5 years later Vegeta returns. He's mad. He didn't find Goku. Yamcha (aka 'scar face') challenges him to a fight. He's got a grudge against him because Bulma just admitted she had a sexy dream about Vegeta and then looked worriedly at the sky on realizing Vegeta was about to run out of fuel.

Anyway, Yamcha says he's going to beat Vegeta up and Vegeta gets ready to kill him. Bulma interrupts the fight, says Vegeta smells and makes him take a shower. She puts his uniform in the wash and leaves him a silly outfit including a pink shirt with 'BAD MAN' written across the back to change into. When he walks out Yamcha, Krillin (remember Krillin's a bit stronger than Yamcha), Bulma, Puar (Yamcha's talking cat) and Oolong (shapeshifting pig) are all sitting at a table on the balcony).

* * *

Vegeta walked from the bathroom in the absurd pink shirt to find he'd been duped. This was NOT "the style here" as the woman had said. This was simply an attempt to humiliate him. Roaring laughter came from the balcony in front of him.

"Stop it!" He yelled. "STOP IT or I'll BLAST you ALL!"

He raised his ki, showing the seriousness of his resolve. The room went quiet as the fighters at the table tensed for action. The woman looked him over, giving him a few seconds to follow through on his threat. Once she was certain they were safe, she smiled.

"Hey, loosen up!" She began to prattle on about the merits of living as her weak species did.

Vegeta watched as the fighters at the table calmed and settled back into their chairs, following her lead.

His mind worked fast... /A test?/

He eyed the woman suspiciously. He couldn't help noticing that the scar-faced human had been joined by a second, stronger fighter. Oh, they sat casually on the balcony - trying **far** too hard to look like they weren't guarding the exit. But he was Vegeta, prince of the saiyans. He was not easily fooled.

After Namek, when she'd invited him to stay at her dwelling, Vegeta had thought her a trusting idiot like Kakarot. Now he wasn't so certain. He was beginning to wish he'd taken more notice of her movements during his last three month stay, then at least he would know whether this trusting persona was all an elaborate act. Despite living in her dwelling, Vegeta had avoided all contact with her and her weak race. He'd focused all his energy on training, trying to break through to becoming a super saiyan. The only times he'd interacted with her had been in passing. All he had gleaned in those 3 months was that she enjoyed using her appearance to try to manipulate the men around her. It was a weak technique which he had quickly overcome. Beyond that... he knew nothing.

He looked at her. Had she arranged this? She had, in a single maneuver, saved her foolish fighter, taken his armor, contained him long enough to call more fighters, then run a simple test to determine what sort of threat he posed.

/Can she she really be that formidable?/ He wondered, running his eyes over the young, human female before him.

It would have been futile for her fighters to challenge him: He could sense that any attempt to match his enormous power against theirs was now even more laughable than it had been all those years ago. But perhaps they simply intended to hold his attention long enough for more reinforcements to arrive?

When he crashed the stolen Capsule Corp vessel into her building less than 20 minutes ago he had expected her to cower in fear as she had on Namek. She hadn't. This foolhardy woman had walked right up to him as if it were nothing!

Vegeta smiled inwardly, knowing it didn't really matter. Whether or not she had arranged it, he had passed her idiotic test. She was visibly relaxing. She believed him to be no threat to her planet.

She was wrong.

Vegeta sauntered over to the table, ignoring the strange woman and finding more comfortable ground intimidating her subordinates. He remembered the small one died in battle on Namek. The taller, weaker one... he had taken a little longer to place him as the one who'd been killed by a mere saibaman shortly after he and Nappa had arrived on earth. He probed them for information on Kakarot's whereabouts, but to no avail.

"I've known Goku since he was 5 years old. " Bulma proudly announced. "Don't worry, just hang out here and take it easy until he gets back. He always comes back."

There it was. The official invitation to stay again. He needed to remain on this planet and this foolish, overconfident woman was offering him an 'All Access' pass.

During their time on Namek she'd been stripped of her warriors one by one until she was revealed for the pathetic weakling she was. But since then she appeared to have somewhat reassembled her small force. Was she now making a vain attempt to recruit him as well? Did she think she was going to add him to her repertoire? He could understand where she might get that idea. He was, after all, among the strongest warriors in the Galaxy, and recently relieved of his previous position under Frieza. It would be a fool indeed who didn't at least attempt to secure him into their ranks, but Vegeta wasn't some common soldier. He was a **prince**, albeit of an extinct race, but the title would never be taken from him. His knee would never bend to anyone ever again. Certainly not to some weakling woman.

(Author note: Oh, you absolutely WILL bend that knee Mister!)

That being said, the strategist in him couldn't resist the position she could give him. He could even use her against Kakarot later if the need arose. All he needed to do was pretend to consider her proposal to join her armada long enough for Kakarot to return. He accepted her offer of accommodation with appropriate hesitation.

"Well then it's settled." She put her hands on her hips happily.

The taller, weaker fighter jumped up to question her orders. "Bulma no way! You're not serious?"

The smaller fighter looked uncomfortable as well, but didn't dare raise a challenge.

"Of course I'm serious." She said. She folded her arms and shot the taller fighter a look.

Vegeta watched the resolve drain from his features. Yes, he had been right. She was the commanding officer around here.

Seeing she had put him back in his place the woman went on talking "He needs a place to stay and we've got plenty of room. Plus, did you forget he saved your life? If it weren't for him we'd have never gotten those Namek Dragon balls. How about a little gratitude huh?"

As he'd suspected. She'd manipulated the Nameks into resurrecting her fallen soldiers. Vegeta was starting to piece together what he'd missed over the past 18 months.

"But Bulma..." The smaller fighter saw his companion faltering and tried weakly to lend his voice to the cause.

"But nothing! Vegeta's staying with us. End of story. " The woman strutted back into the house. Her two fighters remained at the table. Defeated and silent.

"Well? " Suddenly Bulma's voice appeared again, jolting the two fighters and causing Vegeta to look over at her. She stood in the doorway, hands on hips. "Are you coming in or not, hot stuff?"

Vegeta glared at her, deciding how he should respond to such an insubordinate demand.

Mistaking the reason for his hesitation Krillin softly whispered "She means you."

Vegeta shot Krillin a warning glare. He stood, deciding to let it slide. She seemed to keep a fairly strict rank and he didn't want to jeopardize his position here so soon. He slowly walked behind her into the house.

/You should have listened to your subordinates foolish woman / Vegeta laughed inwardly. /This is going to be amusing./

Vegeta followed her through the building, taking a moment to reacquaint himself with the layout.

"Ok, first things first. " She said seriously without looking over her shoulder "If you're going to stay here there's someone we need to tell right away. Man he's gonna pitch a fit I just know it."

/So there's someone she reports to./ Vegeta pondered /Interesting. /

The woman continued to walk, pointing out various rooms along the way. He'd never paid any attention to the complex before. It had always been crawling with Nameks. All their talking and laughing, the endlessly trusting faces of their young. It had quickly driven him to seek out alternative surroundings. Now the place was empty, he realized it was surprisingly large. They passed a large dome full of wildlife and foliage.

"That's where dad keeps all the animals. " She said casually. "He's usually in there too, except when he's in his lab."

Vegeta noted the location. He had just eaten whatever game he'd found while training in the desert last time, but this was far more convenient. Bulma spotted an older man in a lab coat focusing intensely on a clipboard.

"Dad!" She walked over to him. "You remember my father, Dr Briefs. " She said.

Vegeta nodded at him, slightly disappointed that the woman's superior had turned out to be someone so uneventful."Hey dad, Vegeta's back. He needs a place to crash for a while so I told him he could stay with us."

"Oh? " The man glanced up at the saiyan. "That explains the spaceship in the yard. You sure do take the phrase 'place to crash' quite literally." He smiled to show he meant no malice. "Nice to see you back safely son. You just let us know if there's anything you need."

The small black animal on his shoulder stared at Vegeta with empty eyes. It was a little unnerving.

Dr Briefs turned to Bulma. "Bulma dear, the spaceship is blocking your mother's access to the swimming pool. I tried to re-capsuleize it, but it's damaged. I wonder if you wouldn't mind taking a look at it when you get time. "

"No problem dad." Bulma said casually. "Just as soon as I get this guy settled in."

"Oh, no rush." The small man walked away, buried in his clipboard again.

Vegeta smirked. /That was easy./

"Now for the main event." Bulma said, getting more tense as she walked determinedly on.

Now Vegeta was really curious. He had assumed her father was the person who needed to be informed. Who was left? Bulma moved deliberately through the halls until she came to a doubled steel door. She seemed to steady her nerves, taking a deep breath and pulling her shoulders back.

"Let's get this over with." She said, and pushed the door open.

Vegeta looked to see a galley kitchen full of spherical A.I. robots performing various cooking duties.

"Everyone," Bulma paused, letting all the robots look up at her. "This is Vegeta. He's staying to lunch. He's a relative of Son Goku, so initiate Goku menu protocols."

"Uaaaah!" The largest robot began to spark and flail about. "Mistress Bulma we need more warning! There's less than an hour until lunch is to be served. We don't have enough supplies! There's no way! Just no way! Such a thing can't be done all of a sudden!" A little stream of black smoke began to leak out of its side.

Vegeta looked about the room to see all the kitchen robots having similar reactions. /Goku menu protocols? / He wondered.

"Calm down. Calm down." Bulma soothed. "Just do the best you can and make up the rest with takeout for now. He's going to be staying a while so factor it in to your grocery order from now on okay?"

"But Mistress Bu-" Bulma let the door shut, cutting off the end of the robot's sentence.

She sighed heavily as she leaned on the door. "I hate doing that." She muttered.

Vegeta's saiyan hearing picked up the panicked activity in the room behind her. "I am not related to that third class moron." He spat.

"Well, you're more related to him than anyone else around here." She said dismissively. "Anyway, that's done now." She stood up and began walking away. "You heard chef. We eat in an hour, and you'd **better** show up."

"Or WHAT, woman?!" He was getting impatient with her attempts to boss him around.

She paused and turned to face him, twisting her body to emphasize her shape. "Or I won't tell you any stories about me and Goku growing up together." She smiled, completely unfazed. "I told you I've known him since he was a kid. I know everything about him! How he got his strength, and where. You're planning to fight him right? Don't you think it might be useful to know a little about your enemy?"

Vegeta couldn't deny that. Painful as it would be to eat with this creature she might hold some key to defeating Kakarot, even to becoming a super saiyan! But he didn't like the triumphant smile that crossed her features as she realized she'd gotten her way.

"Your old room's upstairs from here, this way. You can get settled in until lunch is served." She went ahead of him until she reached the door. "Here we are. It should be the same as you left it."

She walked away, leaving him at the door "I'm gonna see what I can do about that beaten up old armor you came back in. After lunch you can help me move that spaceship you **broke.** Might as well make yourself useful while you're here."

Vegeta watched her leave. He fought the urge to blast a hole in her back. The image of her twitching corpse was pleasing, but he had a use for her yet. He would have to play her games for now.

* * *

**WANT TO WATCH? INCORPORATED SCENES (And scenes alluded to in story):**

**(TIME REFERENCES AND TITLES AS THEY APPEAR ON 'VIMEO')**

**DBZ 056 (Zarbon's Mission)18:00-End = Vegeta and Bulma 1st meet on Namek **

**DBZ 057 (Gohan the Hunted) (2:47-5:47) (6:57-7:18) (7:53-8:00) (13:37-13:39) (15:58-19:03) = Bulma watches Vegeta fight for 1st time. Spends most of time cowering in fear. Vegeta brutally kills opponent then threatens to go after Bulma (sort of threatens to molest/assault her) if Krillin doesn't give up DB.**

**DBZ 102 (Duel on a Vanishing Planet) (6:52-8:43) (9:05-9:35)(11:50-12:18) = Bulma and Vegeta's first conversation - Bulma still afraid of him**

**DBZ 104 (Frieza Defeated) 3:38-11:43 = Bulma listens to Vegeta's monologue about what he's been through. Much less scared now.**

**DBZ 106 (Namek's explosion... Goku's End)(10:28-13:12)(14:33-END) = Bulma announces Goku's Death. Vegeta attempts to adopt Gohan now that his father is dead. (Author note: Wow! Noble!) Gohan refuses. Vegeta brutally beats him and tells him he needs to face the truth. **

**DBZ 107 (Goku's Alive!) (0:00-3:00) = Bulma explains why Goku cannot be resurrected, Vegeta devises plan to resurrect Kakarot and Bulma is truly grateful. She asks Nameks to stay at her place and flirts with Vegeta for the first time, asking him to stay too. **

******DBZ 107 (Goku's Alive!) (5:00-5:58) = Vegeta meets Bulma's parents. Can't cope with warm fuzzy family.**

**********DBZ 107 (Goku's Alive!) (10:20-10:43)(12:30-14:00) = Goku won't come home yet. Vegeta chases him in stolen ship. **

**DBZ 118 (Frieza's Counterattack) 03:36-4:30 = Bulma announces hot dream about Vegeta.**

******DBZ 118 (Frieza's Counterattack) 11:44-15:41 = Vegeta crashes. Bulma gets him in the shower. Balcony.**


	2. Chapter 2

Vegeta pushed another plate away. A large stack of empty bowls to his right was waiting for the servant droids to collect.

"Boy, you saiyans sure can pack it away. " Krillin said in awe. "I always thought Goku was the only one who could do that."

Vegeta ignored him. "I came to your lunch, woman. Now, I believe you promised me intelligence on defeating Kakarot."

"Huh? " Krillin said, looking at Bulma "Wait, what?"

"Oh relax. " She smiled as she poked at the barbecue. She had offered to pitch in and supplement what the kitchen made with her own cooking out in the yard. "I just promised to tell him some of the old stories of Goku and me and the crazy stuff we used to get up to."

"Oh awesome!" Krillin said happily. "You mind if I hang around and listen too? I always wondered what that guy got up to before I met him, but whenever I'd ask he'd just laugh and talk about his favourite battles without telling me how the fight started or how he got there."

"Haha! That sure sounds like him." Yamcha laughed.

Bulma sat back in her chair and stared at the sky, tapping a finger against her lip. "Now then... Well I suppose it's better to just start at the beginning."

Vegeta and everyone else at the table seemed to be completely focused on her.

"Once upon a time there was a beautiful, talented genius named Bulma Briefs." She began.

Vegeta rolled his eyes, and he wasn't the only one. He endured silently as she rhapsodized about her carefree youth, where everything had been so boring for her that she'd had time to invent the dragon radar between classes. She bragged shamelessly about how a "The tender age of 16" she'd set off on an adventure into the unknown. At least he now knew what she held over all these fighters to keep them in line. She literally held them by the balls. The dragon balls. Without her there was no dragon radar. No dragon radar, no wishes. That was her power over them.

Finally, after a seeming eternity, she reached the point where Kakarot had flipped over her vessel for entering his territory.

Vegeta smirked. /Now we're getting somewhere. /

Bulma mentioned in amazement how she had emptied a full clip of bullets into Kakarot's skull, but they had simply annoyed him. That really surprised the scar face.

"Bulma, really? You fired a gun at a little kid?"

Bulma seemed to recall her surroundings. "Oh! Well I thought he was a highway robber and... I just sort of grabbed the gun and fired until it was empty. Come on guys, I was sixteen."

"But you said Goku didn't look more than 5 years old." Krillin said in disbelief. "Wow Bulma, that's cold. "

Vegeta sat back and smirked at her discomfort, enjoying this unmasking.

After a moments silence Bulma finally exploded. "OH WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL!?" She shouted, standing and banging a fist on the table.

She plonked back into her seat with folded arms "Ok, so I tried to kill him once, so what?! He survived and we became friends. That's pretty much how ALL of us met him. ISN'T IT?"

Vegeta looked around the table in shock as everyone sort of agreed.

"ALL of you have tried to kill Kakarot?" He asked, dumbfounded.

"Well, pretty much." Yamcha laughed "Although I didn't actually try to kill him."

"We just beat him up and took his supplies. Then we left him to die in the desert." The little floating cat pitched in cheerfully.

"That's the same thing..." The pig said as it narrowed its eyes at the cat.

"Hahaha. Man, those were the days! The stuff we got up to..." Yamcha shared a mischievous glance with the floating blue creature.

"Hey! I've never tried to kill him." Krillin said proudly, like it was an amazing accomplishment. "Not that I didn't try to take him down a few times, but we were just rivals. Although... come to think of it Master Roshi and I did put him in the firing line whenever Launch had one of her 'episodes'. And, well, I guess I did cheat and use a lot of dirty tricks on him back then..." Krillin laughed and rubbed the back of his head bashfully. "Man, now that I think of it... the stuff I used to do to that guy! It's embarrassing to look back on. But, he'd just forgive me and go right on like nothing happened. "

"Yup, that's Goku alright." Yamcha laughed. "I can't think of any friend of his that hasn't tried to take him down at least once. Even his WIFE tried to beat him to a pulp, remember? She only married him after he defeated her!"

That got all of them laughing as Vegeta looked on in confusion. /What sort of imbecile-/ Suddenly Vegeta gasped. His head whipped up to look skyward. The other fighters followed his lead.

"Impossible!" Vegeta whispered.

"Hey, what's the matter guys? " Bulma looked between them in confusion.

"Frieza." Vegeta clenched his fists and stood up.

Krillin stood as well and walked to stand next to him. "Yup. That's Frieza alright." He stared up at the same point in the sky with the same fearful hatred.

"Frieza?" Bulma looked up at the empty sky. "Wow. It's he on his way here?"

"He sure is. " Krillin replied. "And he's moving fast. "

"Well, there goes the neighborhood." Bulma said casually. "Do we have enough time to finish lunch?"

"Lunch?!" Yamcha yelled. "Bulma, how can you be thinking of lunch?! Frieza's coming! He's on his way right now!"

"Yeah, I got that Yamcha. " Bulma snapped. "But if Frieza's on his way then it's about to go down. And if earth's going to stand any chance at all, then we're going to need Vegeta, and I for one want him at full power, which for a saiyan means full stomach right? So I'll ask again. Do we have time to finish lunch or not?"

Vegeta glanced over at her. For once there was no false flattery or flirtation in her eyes.

"We have time." He said, moving back to the table. "But make it quick, woman."

Krillin looked at Yamcha. "I'll go suit up and call Gohan. See you soon." He flew off.

Vegeta started to theorize on what sort of advantages he would need in order to defeat the vicious overlord. He ran a few scenarios in his head.

/Perhapse if... No. Or if he... No./ He sat with folded arms.

Slowly he came back to reality. There was no getting around it. Frieza would arrive and Vegeta would die. But he sure as hell wasn't going down without a fight. He'd inflict the maximum damage on that filthy piece of trash. Give him a few scars to remember the saiyans by.

He slammed his fist on the table in frustration. That blasted Kakarot! "So he FAILED after all... Frieza's still alive, and he's coming!"

Yamcha quivered. "Hey, how do you know? Maybe it could be somebody else. Come on!"

"I know!" Vegeta snapped at the idiot boy. "I make it my business to know! Unlike you."

Yamcha leapt up to challenge him again but Bulma cut him off.

"Hey Vegeta? Would you like a little more barbeque sauce on your spare ribs?" She asked calmly.

A few minutes later Vegeta had finished the last of the food and was in the sky. Yamcha struggled to keep up behind him.

/Kakarot you moron! Did you leave him alive like one of your idiot earthling friends? Your spineless methods have cost you your world. Imbecile! Perhaps Kakarot wasn't as powerful as I thought./

Vegeta raced to where he calculated Frieza would land. Yamcha landed a short way away and resumed his pitiful protests against the situation. Vegeta snapped at him to be quiet. The only thing they had going for them right now was that Frieza didn't know where they were, if they lost that, they lost everything. A moment later Bulma showed up in a hovercraft.

/So much for the element of surprise. Idiot woman!/

Bulma landed her vessel and Vegeta looked at the sky. Amazingly, Frieza didn't seem to have noticed.

"Bulma!" The scar faced fighter said in shock as the little cat shot over to cuddle him in an absurdly inappropriate display, "What are you doing here?"

Bulma leapt down from the craft with a wild grin. "I came to see the action!"

"But, Frieza! Do you know what he'll DO to you if he finds you here? "

Vegeta wasn't thrilled about her arrival, but at least she was keeping the weakling fighter distracted.

"Yeah Yeah." She said dismissively, "But if you lose he'll just blow up the planet, so what's the point in hiding? I never even got to see Frieza on Namek! I wanna at least see his face before he blows us up. I hear he's kinda cute."

/Well she might be a weakling and a calculating manipulator, but she's certainly not a coward. / Vegeta thought quietly as he found his eyes drift over to her. He refocused his mind and watched the sky, counting down to his death.

The weakling continued to whine while the woman continued to counter his arguments. Slowly more fighters began to assemble.

And then, it was over.

The mysterious young boy appeared and defeated Frieza like it was nothing. Like it was NOTHING! After a lifetime of waiting and training. After an eternity of enduring under Frieza's thumb Vegeta watched as he was defeated in seconds by a mere CHILD!

Vegeta's mind raced. /How is it possible?!/

And then to add insult to injury the boy had started serving drinks! He openly admitted he was only stopping by to see Kakarot. He hadn't even come to defeat Frieza. He had just ended the greatest threat in the galaxy as a way to pass the time.

Vegeta sat, fuming. He refused to accept that the boy could be saiyan. To admit the boy was saiyan was to admit he was a super saiyan. It was one thing for a single, rogue fighter to have achieved super saiyan status before him. Vegeta could brush that off as an anomaly. But if TWO saiyans had achieved it, one of which was a mere boy... what did that mean? That the transformation was easy? That any saiyan could do it? That Vegeta was simply... weak? No. The boy could **not **be saiyan. His hair and eyes weren't even black! There had to be some other explanation.

They sat in silence. Waiting for Kakarot's vessel to land.

The two hour wait seemed to stretch into an eternity and was made worse by the eyes of the boy on him. Vegeta knew why the boy couldn't stop staring. He could see the faint embarrassment and attempts to keep a straight face. This was unbearable. Whatever his origins, this boy had become a mighty warrior. Before Vegeta sat a legendary being, capable of defeating Frieza without even breaking a sweat. And Vegeta was meeting him ... in a pink shirt.

That woman! This was her doing! He refused to scurry back to her house to change. He'd just have to endure. But it wasn't easy. "What are you looking at?!" Vegeta glared at him.

"Oh! Nothing, it's just that I uh... like your shirt." The boy looked away again with a little smile.

He knew it. He was a laughingstock! "You would." Vegeta shot, hoping the boy would take the reference to his own ridiculous purple hair and drop the subject.

The boys eyes drifted back over like they were magnetically drawn against his will.

Vegeta wanted to grab that woman and blast her into oblivion! Then resurrect her with the dragon balls so he could blast her again!

"Why do you keep looking over here? Haven't you ever seen a pink shirt before? If you like it that much then you can have it." He glared over at him.

"N-No, no thank you. " The fighter said looking away again.

"Then knock it off kid!"

/I'll kill her! I'll kill her! I'll kill her!/ Vegeta swore if Kakarot mentioned anything about his getup he'd really explode.

He listened as the other fighters theorized on the boy's origins until Kakarot's vessel finally landed. Then he got to watch from the sidelines as Kakarot and the boy both made the same transformation with practiced ease. Finally Kakarot had demonstrated with a single finger that the boy's abilities, which had just ended Frieza, were now nothing to him.

Vegeta clenched his fists. He couldn't deny it anymore. The boy was a super saiyan. In the time he'd spent in space wiping out entire legions of Frieza's army Vegeta had begun to forget how pathetic he was when compared with these legendary warriors. They started chatting casually, in the ultimate display of 'real fighters only over here'. Vegeta felt like a small child who had to be sent away while the grown-ups talked.

Suddenly Kakarot turned to look right at Vegeta with shock and laughter in his eyes. He looked back at the boy, then back at Vegeta. Had the boy told him about his battle with Frieza? That while this child had been fighting Frieza like a true saiyan, Vegeta had been creeping around in the shadows like a coward?

Vegeta clenched his fists. /I will NOT allow that third class idiot to laugh at me!/

He would NOT live out his days as the weakest surviving member of an endangered species. He would become stronger than Kakarot, stronger than that boy, stronger than anyone in the universe! He would become a super saiyan and honor the memory of his people. He had nothing else to live for now.

The conversation ended and the boy left, but not before shooting one last glance at Vegeta's shirt.

The Namek related the bullet points. 3 years. Two Androids. Total destruction.

Bulma quickly summed up the situation. "We'll just use the dragon balls to find him, then stop him before he gets a chance to create the androids." She smiled happily.

Vegeta shot her idea down instantly. There was no way he would miss this fight. Bulma turned her attention to Kakarot, obviously hoping his human upbringing might put the odds in her favour, but to her dismay he agreed with Vegeta.

She shouted at them to think like human beings, but they weren't human. The ultimate opponent, the perfect battle. Nothing was more exciting. This was what saiyans lived for. Abandoning her pride she began to beg, but to no avail.

She finally gave in, folding her arms and turning away in a huff. "Fine! But don't come crying to me when we're all enslaved by androids!"

Vegeta watched as she allowed them to change the subject. Had she really backed down after all that? Did she simply intend to go and destroy this "Dr Gero" on her own? He decided he'd need to keep an eye on her for the next while. He looked back at Kakarot and a thought suddenly crashed into his mind.

/Now what?/

After chasing the other saiyan around the galaxy for almost 2 years Vegeta finally had Kakarot standing right in front of him. But somehow he'd never really considered what he would do once he found him. He supposed he had just assumed that if he could get a good look at the transformation, maybe he be able to replicate it. But even after watching THREE super saiyan transformations in the past minutes, Vegeta was still no closer to figuring it out.

The thought occurred that if he asked to be trained by him Kakarot would probably accept. But for him, a prince, to ask to be trained by a third class fighter... there was no way Vegeta's pride would allow it.

Perhaps if he drew Kakarot into conversation the trusting fool would offer to teach him? Even then Vegeta wasn't sure he could stomach the idea of learning from a third class, but so long as he killed Kakarot as soon as he was stronger he supposed it would be alright.

He tried to join their discussion. "Tell me Kakarot, where did you find that absurd outfit?"

"Oh this?" He said with his usual happy-go-lucky tone. "This is the latest fashion on Yardrat. I thought it was pretty nice. At least it's not pink!"

More laughter. Vegeta had had enough laughter to last a lifetime. What had he been thinking? Training under this moron? He decided to abandon the idea. There was no way he could endure as Kakarot's student, not even to become a super saiyan.

He waited long enough to find out Kakarot's new techniques, then flew back to the Briefs' compound. He'd figure it out on his own. After all, it couldn't be that difficult.

A child could do it.

* * *

**___WANT TO WATCH? INCORPORATED SCENES:_**

**_____DBZ 118 (Frieza's Counterattack) 16:40-17:10 = Krillin makes the call_**

**_____DBZ 118 (Frieza's Counterattack) 18:00-18:33 = Bulma's alien barbecue_**

**___DBZ 119 (The Mysterious Youth) 2:43-4:55 = Vegeta and Bulma touchdown (Note - Fanfic lines are taken from Manga + Funimation combo)_**

**____****___DBZ 119 (The Mysterious Youth) 10:30-11:30 = Trunks raids the minibar _**

**_DBZ 121 (Welcome Back Goku) 14:02 + 15:35 = Vegeta is pretty in pink_**

**_DBZ 122 (Mystery Revealed) 6:00-7:10 = Goku gives Trunks the finger_**

**__****_DBZ 122 (Mystery Revealed) 7:30-8:15 = Who's your Daddy?_**

**__****__****_DBZ 122 (Mystery Revealed) 17:50-End = Bye Bye Trunks_**

**__****__****_DBZ 123 (Goku's Special Technique) 3:40-4:10 = Goku's fashion tips_**

**_DBZ 123 (Goku's Special Technique) 6:00-12:00 = Bulma tries to save the Earth. Idea gets shot down. Vegeta flies off seconds before Goku asks for training partner (Poor Vegeta! LOL!)_**


	3. Chapter 3

"THREE HUNDRED TIMES GRAVITY?!" The old man's fingers dug into the little black cat causing it to shriek in protest.

"That's right." Vegeta grinned imposingly at the old scientist. "Kakarot trained at 100 times gravity so I want three times that."

Finally he was back on sure footing. Frieza had had hundreds of scientists captured from various worlds. Vegeta was accustomed to intimidating them into giving him what he wanted.

Dr Brief kept protesting, saying that no living thing could handle such high gravity. Shouting the quick calculations he was running in his head on what each of Vegeta's body parts would weigh at 300G's.

"Enough old man! " Vegeta shouted. "Can you do it or not?"

"W-Well I honestly don't know..." He rubbed his face, trying to think.

"I'll do it."

Vegeta turned to face Bulma as she stood in the doorway with her arms folded.

"Gosh what a commotion." She said casually. "You just want 300G's right? No problem. You don't mind if I do it, do you dad?"

"No! Not at all!" He said with relief on his face.

"Well then, that's settled." She turned to Vegeta. "It'll take me a few hours to set it up. That should be just enough time for you to do something for me." She glanced over at Vegeta with the usual flirtatious smile. He didn't like where this was going.

"I just happen to have the job for you cutie pie! " She looked him over. "A perfect warm up for that hot bod."

"Spit it out, woman. What do you want?" To say Vegeta was sick of having his body complemented would be an understatement. He was a warrior! His physique was a by-product of training to become stronger. He hated being compared to the pathetic fashion models in her magazines who put on muscle simply to attract females. He hated it and he knew that was exactly why she did it.

"This 'WOMAN', has a name! Bulma!" She folded her arms with clear annoyance.

Vegeta locked eyes with her. This was exactly why he'd asked the old man. He didn't want to deal with this creature who didn't seem to fear him at all. He wanted to simply state his orders and have them obeyed.

She sighed. "Well, I suppose I shouldn't expect too much of your memory. You're royalty after all, probably a bit inbred."

Vegeta went to shout his reply but she cut him off. "I want Frieza's ship."

Vegeta stopped at the mention of Frieza's name. "What? What do you want with his vessel?"

"That's a secret!" She winked at him. "But for my guys to transport something that big over that distance would take days and cost a fortune. I figure a big, tough spaceman like you can do it in a few hours." She dangled a set of keys at him. "There's some hangers underground around back. B12 is being cleared as we speak. Once it's empty It should fit the ship."

Another flirty, triumphant smile crossed her features as he snatched the keys from her. "Oh, I'd also like any scouters you can find from those other soldiers the super saiyan killed." She walked out of the room. "Careful not to scratch the paint job!"

Vegeta loaded the ship into the hanger and came back to find her outside the Capsule Corp vessel he'd followed Kakarot in. There was a construction crew clearing up and fresh turf had been laid under the ship.

She sat at a small outdoor table sipping afternoon tea with her mother.

"Oh! Bulma dear, look who's back!" Mrs Brief trotted over on her high heels. "Would you like a cupcake Mr Vegeta?"

Bulma glanced over. "How'd you go?"

"It's done." He replied, ignoring her mother as usual.

"Great! I knew I could count on you. You big, strong man you!" She put her teacup down. "Ship's all done, I just removed the engines, wired it into the mains power and upped the maximum gravity. Since it can't fly any more it seems silly to call it a ship. I call it the gravity room. GR for short. It'll go as high as 200G's."

"The deal was 300G's!" He glared at her.

"Oh calm down!" She said in an exasperated tone. "I know you're royalty but are you sure you're not a Queen? Because you **act** like a drama Queen!"

Vegeta got ready to blow up one of her precious Capsule Corp buildings. He would not be double crossed by some human.

"I need parts before I can go that high." She said, catching his attention again. "The hull will need to be reinforced. Maybe YOUR body can handle 300G's, but the ship's body can't. It would only be seconds before the ceiling collapsed in on you. I never said I would get you 300G's today, I said I would 'set it up' and I did. The re-wiring's done and the parts are on order, but they'll take a few days. Meanwhile you can work your way up to 200G's. It's the best I can do on short notice. On the bright side, now that the ship's been rigged for high gravity rather than space travel it should be pretty easy to upgrade it as we go."

Vegeta began to calm down, he walked toward the gravity room.

"You're WELCOME!" Bulma called after him. He could hear her complaining to her mother about "that ungrateful royal pain in the neck" as he shut the door behind him.

/What does she mean, 'As **we** go'? How **dare** she talk as if we're working together?/

Vegeta looked around the GR. He felt at home again.

After a brief warm-up he flicked the controls straight to 200.

/Work your way up indeed. Idiot woman! Did you forget I lived in this room for 18 months? / He laughed to himself. /My body adapted to 100G's within weeks of leaving your pitiful planet and I existed quite happily at that gravity for over a year. It's nothing to me anymore. Twice nothing is still nothing!/

The generator kicked in with the usual groaning churn as it slowly powered up. Vegeta waited with anticipation. Finally a loud 'clang' sounded as it kicked in. An overpowering gravity shockwave slammed into Vegeta like a direct hit from a powerful opponent. The sheer force knocked him off balance only slightly but he couldn't right himself in time to prevent the immense gravity from dragging him instantly down. He fell to the floor, pinned.

His lungs started to gasp for air as the weight of his own frame began pushing against his ribs, suffocating him like a beached whale. His eyes widened at the sudden understanding of the situation he was in. He couldn't move. He couldn't move and he couldn't breathe. He desperately tried to raise a hand to the panel but his body wouldn't budge more than a few inches and each second without air left him weaker.

Vegeta felt himself beginning to lose consciousness. He couldn't decide if he wanted to be found or not. He could just IMAGINE the laughter if that woman found him here like this!

He lay there, helplessly continuing to try to raise his hand, but to no avail. Finally he realized he'd have to destroy the whole machine. He began to focus the last remnants of his mind on forming a ball of ki big enough to blow up the core. The walls would come at him and crush his body, he knew he'd still die either way but at least the prince of all saiyans wouldn't be found dead on the floor in this helpless pose!

He formed the blast and aimed it at the core but just as he was about to fire another painful shockwave hit his form. Suddenly Vegeta felt himself able to move again. He gasped sweet air into grateful lungs and dragged himself to sit upright. He pulled the ball of ki back into his hand and sat there, panting for a little while.

/What? Why would it suddenly...?/

His mind began to work. /Did it break?/

Vegeta felt a little rush of exhilaration. /Did that woman's shoddy upgrade break down within mere seconds?!/

He grinned to himself, projecting his upcoming victory. This couldn't have worked out better! Not only was he alive, he was about to get a chance to finally gain some ground on that irritating female! He turned to the control panel.

'Gravity Confirmation Required - Safety Shut-Off Engaged' A stream of text ran repeatedly across the display.

Vegeta read the text as it streamed over and over. /Safety Shut-Off?!/ He looked to see a new 'Confirm' button flashing brightly on the panel.

He felt his imagined victory slip away.

/She installed a safety?! For me! A saiyan!? That impertinent woman! How **dare** she presume I would require such an insulting measure! I am a warrior! I do NOT require a SAFETY!/

He jumped to his feet to go yell his opinion of her 'safety' at her, but his legs still couldn't move properly and he immediately stumbled and fell back to the floor.

That's when Vegeta finally remembered just how he had discovered her 'safety' causing a new wave of embarrassed rage to sweep through him. He slowly picked himself up and moved to lean against the control panel again.

Even in her absence Vegeta could just feel her victorious smile stinging into him. He been here less than a day and yet he'd already seen that smile more times than he could count.

/Blasted woman!/ Vegeta clenched his fists and began wracking his brain for some, **any** version of events that didn't involve her having just saved his life. None sprang to mind.

/She's making a fool of me again! She arranged this! Somehow... Somehow she **arranged** this to make a fool of me! As if that absurd pink shirt wasn't enough! Now she turns my own **ship** against me!/

/That woman! Does she think I don't see her pathetic games?! I am a **warrior** of **royal** blood! I will not be reduced to the level of one of her little toy soldiers! As if I wouldn't notice these clumsy attempts to subjugate me!/

Vegeta finally began to look back over his day with Bulma thus far. Until that moment he had been so busy with thoughts of defeating Kakarot or Frieza he'd had little time to consider defeating the woman as well. But if he was going to live here it would be wise to knock her off her perch as quickly as possible. She needed to know he wouldn't tolerate her schemes. He employed basic strategy, summing up his knowledge of her strengths and weaknesses.

First and foremost: what were her strengths?

/She's an engineer./ He remembered she had bragged over lunch that she invented the revolutionary dragon radar technology within days of finding her first dragon ball. He also knew that in a single afternoon she had finished the upgrades her father had implied to be impossible.

/... somewhat skilled engineer./ He begrudgingly amended.

/A quick tongue./ Another obvious one. That tongue made it difficult to put her in her place.

/She has an impressive body./ He added. Although he somehow felt a little cheated by his own mind in that it still listed that body among her potential advantages over him.

He continued to search his knowledge of her.

What else?

/She's clever./

There was that little maneuver when he first arrived, the way she had swiftly contained him and called for reinforcements before he even had a chance to get his bearings.

Vegeta furrowed his brow. That had seemed like something more than just being 'clever'...

He began to think.

That moment when Frieza's approach had been announced. That had been odd. While all the 'real' fighters were still staring at the sky, that woman had already projected the logical sequence of events and calmly formulated an appropriate counter offensive.

Vegeta started to see a tiny, impossible pattern forming.

/Surely that woman couldn't be...?/

But the evidence continued to mount. Even later that day when the super saiyan's prophecy had been announced, the woman had immediately formulated an airtight plan to eliminate the threat before it began. The sheer speed with which she had come up with it! The Namek had hardly finished his sentence! The methods may have been cowardly, but the plan was sound. That was... That had **definitely** been...

/Strategy?!/

Vegeta of all people could certainly appreciate the skill. In his upbringing as a prince he had been trained by the finest saiyan masters in battle strategy. It was a basic necessity, invaluable in any potential King. He knew that, but the natural saiyan instinct was to 'fight first, think later'. It had taken great effort for him to overcome such a powerful inclination and learn to think like a leader rather than a fighter. Even now he sometimes found himself foolishly attacking without a plan. But that woman...

/It can't be! She can't be!/

His mind began to work faster, looking for more proof. It was impossible! A strategist?

But slowly he began remembering the more subtle displays of her 'talents'. Just why exactly had she come to the fight with Frieza again? Vegeta didn't for a second believe that line she fed the others about wanting to see Frieza's face. He thought back to her arrival.

After the event had played out it was always much easier to trace why the strategist had made the choice they did. He began to list the circumstances leading up to the employed tactic as his teachers had taught him to do.

/She brought the blue cat. The cat is a comrade of the scar face./ Vegeta knew that much. He thought on. /As soon as she landed both she and the cat had focused all their attention on the weakling boy. It must have been a plan... something to do with that boy.../

Vegeta felt it coming together. /The scar face had been battle shy. He was frightened of defeat, of dying. In fact, he was about ready to turn tail and run! What exactly would the boy's cowardice have done to the morale of the other fighters? That could have majorly impacted on the chances of her planet.../

Vegeta gawked as he started to see it. /She couldn't have that. No, she wanted the best odds for victory. She needed to eliminate his fears before he succumbed to them, but in a way that wouldn't stand out too much to the other fighters.../

His mind raced as he replayed how she had fearlessly risked her own life by coming right to the front line of the battle, then instantly attacked Yamcha's cowardice on multiple fronts.

She had sent the cat to the conspicuous task of cuddling and consoling the weakling, while she, in a few short, well constructed sentences, reduced Frieza's foreboding reputation: referring to him as 'kinda cute'. Reminded the scar face of the high stakes: that their planet was in play. And then appealed to the boy's pride: fearlessly announcing that **she** would rather die looking her killer in the eye than hiding pointlessly, and giving the boy the opportunity to declare his resolve to do the same. The multilevel attack had been so fast and so precise he hadn't even seen it happening!

Vegeta stood and looked through the GR window at where she still sat with her mother. That woman had been displaying rapid-fire, high level strategy right under his nose all day! How had he not seen it?!

/She's a strategist? Her?!/

He couldn't fathom it! He looked at her in disbelief. When his mind pictured a strategist he immediately envisioned old men with missing teeth and crippled limbs. They were formidable in their own right, 'Warriors of the mind' as his father called them, but he had never **imagined** a strategist could be so... curvy.

/No wonder she stands so easily among the planet's greatest fighters. She's **one** of them. In fact she completes their force. Without her it's merely brute strength but with a strategist among them they are able to stand against an entirely different class of threat./ He stared at her. /But... her?! A warrior?! A warrior with a little red skirt and... legs and... that impressive pair of... /

Suddenly the blue haired woman took on a whole new appeal as his saiyan mind registered her as a formidable warrior. His eyes seemed glued to the impossible woman.

He had noticed that flawless body the first time he saw her on Namek, but then she had fooled him into thinking she was just a weakling and he had quickly lost interest. Now though... with his new knowledge of her 'battle power' he found his eyes wandering over her again.

A strategist did nothing pointlessly. Vegeta began to think. Why would a strategist have invited a clear threat like himself into her dwelling not once, but twice and then flirt with him non-stop? The answer seemed obvious.

/From the moment she saw me she wanted me living in her dwelling - at arms reach night after night. Well, it stands to reason. A woman like her probably chews through males like candy. This planet's dismal selection would certainly pale in comparison to a real saiyan warrior. No doubt she was curious to sample 'real power' when we met, but I was not so easily enticed. Since my return she's obviously redoubled her efforts. She's become far more aggressive in her attempts to seduce me. That little minx has done nothing but try to catch my eye all day./

His mind finally understood her repeated humiliations as blatant attempts to display her fighting skills and finally catch his attention. Her constant complements on his body suddenly didn't seem so annoying anymore. In fact he was beginning to think of a few he quite agreed with. Vegeta was well aware his body was perfection from every angle.

That woman. She wanted him. And now that he knew what she was he was certainly willing to oblige her. It had been quite some time since he'd... let off a little steam with another fighter. Perhaps living here wasn't going to be so bad after all.

He continued to look her over. /She's a talented engineer, that implies she's good with her hands.../

His body began to get a little impatient and he glanced at her mother sitting opposite with overpowering annoyance. That woman had never been more inconvenient in her life! And then there was the problem of how to let her know he was finally interested.

Much as he wanted to, he couldn't exactly walk up to a warrior like her and say "I've decided you're worth screwing. Where should we do it?"

Although with the way she had relentlessly pursued him for the past two years... She'd probably accept something as simple as that.

No. He thought. He couldn't afford to be too obvious. Strategists valued subtlety. He needed to create a ruse. A reason to be alone with her. A woman like her... with that flirty little smile and tight red dress... if he could just get her alone he bet she would take care of the rest. And if she didn't, he would.

After a few moment's thought Vegeta opened the GR door and strutted over to the little table.

"Oh!" Mrs Brief looked up at him. "Mr Vegeta! Did you change your mind? We still have plenty of cupcakes. Let's see..."

He ignored her mother pointlessly listing the flavors and focused dark eyes on the curvy little warrior before him. His gaze wound down to her ridiculous little skirt. Such an impractical garment at first glance, but now that he thought of it, all that was required was to slide it up a fraction and you could... His body heated in new understanding. That skirt wasn't impractical at all. In fact it was **extremely** practical.

But it still all hinged on getting her alone.

"Have you inspected Frieza's vessel yet?" He asked, feeling rather smart.

"Huh?" She looked up at him with mild confusion. "Nope. Not yet."

"I have knowledge of the ship's systems." Vegeta continued. "Accompany me. I will give you a guided tour."

"Oh, what a sweet offer!" Her mother cooed. "Bulma dear, isn't he just the sweetest thing?"

Bulma's eyes shot him a quizzical look, obviously trying to calculate why he was suddenly being so uncharacteristically accommodating. "Uh, Thanks anyway, but I'll have to take a rain check. Yamcha's going to be here any..." She looked past Vegeta. "Actually, that's him now. Thanks for waiting with me Mom."

Bulma put down her teacup and stood. "Hey Mom, don't wait up okay? Yamcha's had kind of a rough day, I think I'll stay over and keep him company tonight."

"No problem sweetie." Mrs Brief replied.

"Later." Bulma casually walked around the extremely confused saiyan to where Yamcha was landing his car. She jumped in and the two of them flew off.

"Those two are so cute!" Mrs Brief began pouring Vegeta a cup of tea. "My Bulma really is an old fashioned romantic! She's only ever had eyes for that Yamcha since she was a girl. Gosh that means they've been together over 15 years now! He was her very first boyfriend you know. It's been a little bumpy... honestly, I was starting to think they'd NEVER settle down but it finally looks like they're really getting serious. Today Yamcha even started talking about having kids!"

She held out a flower shaped teacup for Vegeta.

"Oh my goodness!" She put her hand to her cheek. "To think I might be a grandmother so soon! Surely I'm too young for that already."

He looked from the offensive teacup to the retreating car.

Vegeta slowly repeated the woman's words in his mind.

'... fifteen years together...'

'... talking about kids...'

He finally realized just how humiliatingly far off the mark he had been.

He stormed back to his GR.


	4. Chapter 4

Vegeta woke a little before dawn. He stared up at the ceiling for a moment. He felt restless. This place was too peaceful. He couldn't ever remember a time when he wasn't moving directly from one battlefield to the next. This new existence among the humans felt like sitting in a luke-warm bath. It wasn't painful it was just... mind numbingly dull. All he could think of was getting back to the action.

He walked slowly down to the kitchen, his limbs aching and protesting the movement as usual as the previous day's workout took its toll. He refused to limp. Any soldier knew a battle was fought as much in the enemy's mind as anywhere else. The moment your enemy saw any sign of weakness and started to think of you as a flesh and blood creature was the moment you lost your advantage.

The kitchen droids had prepared his usual breakfast. He sat devouring the banquet of dishes in silence, the rest of the family would be several hours before waking. Well, he thought as he stood from the table, at least there were still some advantages to living here. He certainly had never eaten so well in his life. Frieza expected his soldiers to care for their own meals, which usually meant roasted game, or the occasional fallen inhabitant of the world they were conquering if you were in a hurry. With a decent meal came a fresh wave of energy.

He quietly focused his mind to listen for the woman's ki.

She wasn't in her room.

/Has she finally gone to look for Dr Gero?/ Vegeta quickly searched further. /Blasted woman had better not be thinking of preventing our battle!/

He searched the various Capsule Corp buildings until his mind finally settled on her pathetic signature.

She was in his GR.

Vegeta clenched his fists at the impertinent invasion into his territory. He stood up and began to storm towards his GR.

Oh how he'd **love** to kill that woman. After that first day where she had repeatedly humiliated him all he could think of was ways to destroy her. But he knew the second her corpse hit the ground that idiot Kakarot would come after him.

Clever woman. She had chosen her allies carefully.

No, killing her wasn't an option. Instead he just had to keep a constant eye on the scheming creature. He had quickly learned to pick out her ki and had used that to monitor her movements without her knowledge. He didn't need to watch her constantly, truthfully he didn't think he'd be able to yet. Finding her tiny signature among the hundreds of animals and Capsule Corp employees took all his concentration. But thankfully that wasn't necessary. All she required was a quick check up every hour or so to ensure she wasn't up to anything more than her usual schemes. At least finding her signature was becoming easier with time.

Vegeta had quickly mapped her routine over the past days. She usually went to bed an hour or so before he woke up and slept until a little before noon. Then she ambled about the house for a while until she came to eat her breakfast with him while he had lunch. She always finished eating her pathetic portion first and then resumed her tradition of slowly leaking information on Kakarot to him between insults. After that she spent most of her time either in the family house, in the Capsule Corp 'R&D' building, whatever that was, or in hanger B12. Thankfully all those buildings were close to his GR which meant thus far she had been fairly easy to track. Vegeta had only ever had to follow her once when she'd failed to come home within a reasonable time window, but that too had been easy enough. He'd simply looked for the bright ki of the scar faced fighter and there the woman had been.

Under him.

Vegeta cringed at the memory. There were certain aspects to sensing ki he didn't particularly enjoy. He'd certainly rather not have sensed how the woman's and weakling fighter's ki's blended together so rhythmically as they went at it.

Well, anyway, he had been able to track her. She hadn't been chasing Dr Gero. That was all that mattered.

But now she was breaking that routine in a blatant display of her usual defiance. He finally reached the GR where he had detected her unwanted presence.

He walked into the room and looked around in amazement. She was far from alone. The smell of welded metal filled the air and at least seven A.I. droids were working at the walls with blow torches.

/That woman! Did she decide to just take over my GR without so much as consulting me?!/

He stomped over to where she lay sleeping soundly on the floor beside a removed wall panel. Vegeta kicked the panel away and it made a loud crash against the wall. Bulma stirred softly, turning her head to face upwards and letting out a little "Hn".

Vegeta gawked. How could she sleep through that? Was she really so unguarded in her sleep? She was supposed to be a fighter for crying out loud! He approached closer, deliberately stomping loudly against the metal floor, but she slept on.

"Ahem." He cleared his throat staring down at her with his most imposing face. She let out another little noise and shifted again as she curled her fingers softly.

/This is absurd! What sort of pathetic fighter let's an enemy approach so easily!/

Finally he reached over her head and punched the wall, creating a loud bang.

That did it. Her eyes squinted, and her hand moved to rub her eye as she pushed herself up with the other hand. She sat up facing away from him, rubbing at her eye.

/What? How can she not notice me standing right over her!/ Vegeta raised his battle aura pointlessly. She couldn't sense ki.

/Surely a strategist would at least check her surroundings on waking?/ He wondered. /That's basic./

That was when he realized what the problem was. Of **course** she couldn't sense his approach. Of **course** she slept with her guard down. She wasn't a fighter. She was just a human woman!

Vegeta looked down with new understanding. /She has no training... She's just an ordinary human!/

Vegeta fumed. /She didn't even know she was doing it!/

No wonder he had been so far off in projecting her reasons for keeping him there. He had labelled her a strategist and instantly he had begun to associate her with the highly trained saiyan battle strategists he had known in his youth. But that wasn't this woman at all! She read **fashion** magazines, not war chronologies. Her impressive strategy was just the result of gut instincts and reflexes. Her abilities only came out in reaction to times of crisis. She was no better than that idiot's little half-breed Gohan had been in infancy! Right now, in the absence of a threat to her world to bring out her abilities she was helpless. Weak. Not worth his energy.

Bulma slowly stretched and let out another little noise, still completely unaware of his presence. Her Capsule Corp jacket suddenly flopped to the floor revealing the flawless curves that had held him so fixated not long ago.

Vegeta smirked. He could feel himself gaining the upper hand again. He FINALLY understood this woman.

Vegeta smiled down at her, deciding to enjoy the situation. His eyes wondered shamelessly over her perfect bust, porcelain skin and long legs. They held little power over him now.

/Helpless woman./ He laughed inwardly as he began to feel like a predator stalking an unwary prey.

Bulma checked her watch. "N-No way..." She exclaimed softly as she hurriedly crawled over to the open panel, giving Vegeta a great angle on her behind. He grinned wider, folding his arms and tilting his head for a better look. She reached in, then paused. "Oh!" She shot a sweet, open smile up at one of the droids. "You finished the soldering for me? Thank you very much!"

Vegeta stared in shock. Was **this** really the woman he had been allowing to get him so riled up? She was pathetic!

"Right!" She said inspecting the soldering one last time. "If that's all done then we should be able to pack up and get out of here before his royal majesty prince winge-a-lot gets in."

He eagerly waited.

"Wha-!?" She finally turned around and stumbled backwards a little at seeing him standing there. "Vegeta?"

"It's about time, woman." He grinned imposingly at her. "You need to work on your guard."

Suddenly the openness in her features was gone, replaced by her usual, fearless expression. Vegeta felt a little flicker of attraction. There was still something alluring about that ridiculous courage but he wouldn't be manipulated by this weakling anymore.

Bulma grinned at him. "Were you watching me sleep? You perv! Wait until my mom and dad find out the great Vegeta is nothing but a simple peeping Tom." She folded her arms and sighed. "Oh dear, it's always the quiet ones."

A few moments ago that jab would have gotten right under his skin, but not now. He knew her now. She had nothing to back up those words. She was a weakling. "Don't compare me to one of your weak race." He replied calmly. "I came to train as you well know. Now I wish to know why I found you sleeping in my territory?"

Bulma seemed to hesitate, surprised that he hadn't reacted according to their usual pattern. Then a tiny glimmer of pleasure appeared in her eyes as she stepped closer.

"YOUR territory?" She began. "Hey mister look around you. Do you see your name written on this thing? No. And you know why? Because it wouldn't **fit** next to the **giant** "Capsule Corp" logo! This thing is ours. And we're being very nice by letting you use it at all."

Vegeta watched her approaching. /Is she... is she **hitting at** me?/

That was no small question. When a saiyan man and woman started to 'hit at' each other, trade cold insults, slowly 'one-upping' each other. They might as well be saying "Your place or mine?"

He looked at her uncollected fallen jacket then back at the resultant eternity of bare skin she was now showing off. /Was she **waiting** for me in here? Here in the GR where no one would see us?/ Vegeta felt it coming together. /Clever little strategist, you almost had me fooled again! I **knew** she was a warrior! I **knew** it! She must keep that Yamcha as a pretty picture for her parents to look at while she secretly seeks out males more worthy of her attention./

"Yours?" He maintained his casual smirk and stepped closer, accepting her unspoken offer. "Surely you mean your father's. You're taking credit for your father's achievements as usual."

Bulma shifted her stance with clear excitement. A little smile played at the corners of her lips and her eyes began to beam at him. "As if!" She said. "Who upgraded this ship for you again? I happen to be just as smart as my father, but I do it with a knock-out bod thrown into the mix."

She approached and poked a finger into his chest. "Besides, what have YOU done lately? Other than being born to the right family?"

Vegeta looked from the finger back to her. /She certainly moves fast! You really couldn't stand to wait anymore could you? Little tease. You put on such a display! Pretending you were asleep... making those sexy little noises... /

Vegeta fought back a grin as he maintained his flawless glare.

"For your information only the strongest progeny of the king are selected as princes." He shot back. "I began conquering entire planets by the time I was 4 years old."

"Really?" She shifted her stance again to stand even closer, using her proximity and height advantage to better intimidate him as she let herself get caught up in the fight.

"Your folks were that eager to get you out of the house? Ah, you must have been a real little brat. Looks like you haven't changed much either." Her face was now within inches of his.

Vegeta couldn't believe his luck. Finding a woman who didn't even want to let it be known what they were doing? He was accustomed to women wanting to parade him around as a trophy. The idea that she wanted to 'sneak around' with **him**? That was new. That was kind of hot.

He began to close the final inches between their mouths. "You are hardly one to speak of poor behavior ... woman."

"Agh! How hard is it to remember?!" She shouted in exasperation and stomped away. "Bulma! My NAME is Bulma!"

That jolted Vegeta back to utter confusion.

/What? Weren't we just.../ He looked at her glaring at him.

Vegeta felt like a cold bucket of water had been tipped over him.

/That scheming...! Did she simply want to prove I was hers for the taking?!/

He instantly folded his arms over his chest and yelled in a knee jerk reaction to the sudden embarrassment rushing through him. "Enough of your stalling! State your business here!"

Bulma's face betrayed a flash of confused disappointment at his abrupt end to the fight she had been so enjoying. She folded her arms, mirroring his pose, and her usual defiant expression took its place on her features.

"You are SO impatient!" She shot. "Well for your information the support struts for the higher gravity arrived yesterday. They were taking up space on the lawn so I decided to install them last night to get them out of the way."

"How long until the work is complete?" He wanted her out of his GR right now.

/Vile woman! How dare she get me all.../ He tried to calm his body and listen to her reply.

Bulma put a hand on her hip and turned to survey the room. "Well," She had a calm professionalism about her as she walked to get the panel he'd kicked away. "To tell the truth I didn't think it would take this long, but when I started installing the struts I found micro fractures all over the hull. It's a good thing I spotted them early. Left on their own they'd have eventually caused the walls to implode when the gravity was up. I think the sudden changes in air pressure when you throw the generator straight to the maximum are to blame. If it was doing that to the ship I hate to think what it was doing to your skull. I'm guessing you probably felt it and ignored it like the crazy freak you are."

Vegeta kept his face expressionless. He wouldn't give this creature the satisfaction of admitting to the intense piercing headaches and nosebleeds he'd simply come to expect when starting up the gravity generator each day. She'd had quite enough victories today.

Bulma knelt down to press the panel back into place. She picked up an electric shear wrench to secure it in. "Anyway, we've repaired and reinforced the most damaged areas, and while I was rewiring the generator for 300G's I also set it to kick in more slowly. From now on it'll go up in increments of one G per second until it reaches the right level."

"How long, woman?" He repeated, wishing this conversation could just end.

"Aha! Now that you know you're about to get a new toy you're all excited to play with it." She smiled her usual smile as she drove in another bolt. "Well, probably an hour I think. Most of the work is done but the welding will need to cool and then I'll have to do a test run... Yeah, about an hour. Think you can amuse yourself for that long?"

"Just finish the work, woman. I am perfectly capable of seeing to my own affairs." Vegeta walked away.

"Oh, you're **such** a brat!" She said with an exasperated voice, "Just stay nearby, I'll come let you know when your new toy is ready to play with." She turned back to continue bolting the panel on.

Vegeta walked across the lawn, The sun had risen and the animals in the enclosure were beginning to stir. He wasn't hungry, he wasn't tired and his GR was out of commission.

/Now what?/


	5. Chapter 5

Vegeta was bored.

He began to walk aimlessly through the complex. What was he supposed to do for an hour? He came to a stop in front of the main building. He would have been happy to simply lean against the wall and wait, but he had bragged that he could find something to do and he didn't want the woman to come back and catch him unoccupied. He could practically hear her teasing him already about needing her to amuse him.

He couldn't believe he had made such a fatal error. Hadn't he only JUST worked out that her 'battle power' was triggered by fear? And then he immediately goes and sneaks up behind her?! What did he expect? He should have **known** she would respond!

That swift attack... he'd known she was fast but he had no idea she was **that** fast. In mere SECONDS she'd had him on defence. And then a moment later she sent him running from his own GR!

Him!

Scurrying off in defeat like a weakling!

/Curses.../ He was beginning to think of her as a warrior again...

/NO!/ He immediately blocked the heated attraction that train of thought was bringing. Nothing but idiotic hormones and chemicals. Vegeta knew very well, saiyans were, at the end of the day, a warrior race. They were drawn to the most powerful mate, instincts no doubt aimed to produce the most powerful offspring. The stronger the woman, the more attractive she was. And this little human woman was indeed powerful.

Except she wasn't.

/Blasted confusing little.../

He reminded himself there was a high probability she didn't even KNOW she was doing it! She just lashed out on instinct like a cornered animal.

But then again...

No. Absolutely not.

She was no warrior. Untrained. Unskilled. She didn't even seek battle! She hid from it! Pathetic.

He mentally kicked himself a few more times for the absurd thought and refocused his mind as he began to stomp towards the animal enclosure. He still had an hour to fill. Going in there and catching a snack was as good a way as any to pass the time. He wasn't really hungry enough to bother, but it had started to feel unnatural to him, going so long without killing anything. How long **had** it been since he'd taken a life? He tried to think back...

There was the time it took to return to earth in the ship, plus he'd been here nearly a week now. It must have been at least ... two months?

He hadn't gone so long without killing anything since... ever. He didn't know why it should matter so much but it disturbed him somehow.

Not that there was much worth killing around here, well, there was the woman, she'd be an absolute **delight** to kill. Just the **thought** of it and his headache eased. But then he came back to the problem of Kakarot again. Painfull as it was to admit Vegeta knew he wasn't ready to face him yet.

No.

Until he ascended he'd just have to make do with the prey at his disposal. Perhaps he'd start making a habit of hunting and killing at least one of Dr Brief's odd little creatures each day. That should be enough to keep his predator instincts amused. Vegeta walked toward the enclosure. He'd pick out a fast one and release it. Hunting it down could probably fill an hour if he took his time.

"Ah! Vegeta. Good morning. " Dr Brief stood in his robe, sipping coffee inside the enclosure. "My, you're up very early. I was just about to read the morning paper and feed the animals."

Vegeta scowled. /Well, at least this old human might help waste some time./

"Isn't that a task more suited to one if the servants?" He replied, walking closer.

"Oh I enjoy doing it. I grew up in the inner city you know. We had a tiny, one room apartment that didn't allow pets. Now I can have as many as I want. Isn't that right Scratch?" He stroked the cat and it made a little noise.

"What's a 'pet'?" Vegeta asked distractedly. The black furry animal on Dr Brief's shoulder stared relentlessly at him. He avoided eye contact.

Dr Brief's eyes widened. "Oh, they don't have them where you come from? A pet is an animal you take care of."

"We had that. But on Vegeta-sai we called it livestock." Vegeta replied, his eyes drifting back to the cat's as it continued to stare holes into him.

"Oh no! Livestock is for eating. You don't eat pets." Dr Brief said with a chuckle.

Vegeta looked back at the scientist, genuinely confused. "Do you mean to tell me that you have been feeding and protecting all the animals in that enclosure and you **never** intend to eat them? What's the advantage of that?"

Dr Brief stroked the little cat. "Well, I suppose I never thought of it that way before. Come to think of it, there is no advantage. I keep pets because they give me happiness. I feel good knowing I helped something that couldn't help itself."

"Hn." Vegeta thought of that a moment. Did Dr Brief consider HIM to be among his 'pets'? That was unacceptable. He decided to reassert his dominance. He grinned his most imposing smile. "Since I've found you here, there's something I'd like you to do for me."

"Oh? Sure thing son. What can I do ya' for?" He smiled calmly.

Vegeta started to suspect that after a week of watching his daughter pull him apart like she no doubt did with every new toy Dr Brief wasn't affected by his glares anymore.

"You have several A.I robots performing various tasks around the house. You will design some weaponized ones for battle simulations in the GR." Vegeta stared down at the old man. He tried to look as dangerous as possible. Maybe he couldn't kill anything but if he could at least get something to fight... He had **never** wanted to punch something so much as he did after a conversation with that blasted woman.

Dr Brief maintained his smile. "No problem son. I'll look into it for you." He took a sip of his coffee. "Ah, I'd better get moving. Want to come help feed the animals?"

Vegeta frowned. "I'll pass."

"Suit yourself. Stop by anytime if you change your mind. It's very relaxing." Dr Brief wondered off towards the feed storage area.

Vegeta looked around. He was bored again.

He wandered further, out of the enclosure, past the Capsule Corp commercial building entrance where a night security guard tensed and shot him a wary look from inside. He smirked a little, enjoying the fear on the man's face. He decided to maintain eye contact and let the man sweat for a moment, but eventually grew bored of the game and looked to his right.

Vegeta's smile widened. He spotted the entry to the underground hangers in the distance. If the woman was going to invade his territory without asking, then she certainly couldn't complain if he responded in kind. He lifted off the ground and flew in the direction of the hangers, causing the security guard to fall off of his chair in shock at the amazing flying man.

Vegeta flew down the long ramp until he was completely underground. He landed softly in front of the entrance to hanger B12, grabbed the handle and turned. It broke off easily and he walked inside, surprised that there was no apparent alarm. Before him sat Frieza's ship.

What was left of it.

Vegeta stared in awe. Panels had been removed from half of the outer shell, leaving the inner structures and circuitry exposed. Various laptops and other computers were tethered into the ship's systems. Some were attached with so many wires that they resembled a jellyfish attacking its prey. The screens showed streams of text, slowly trying to decode the encryption Frieza's scientists had set up. Around The edges of the room were trestle tables with various weapons and tools laid out neatly in categories. Guns on this table, medical equipment on the next, scouters on the one after that, they seemed to stretch forever. Beneath each table was a crate containing more examples of the specimens above. He walked through the ship's open doors to find it much the same inside. More computers wired in to various consoles. More panels missing. She was pulling the ship apart piece by piece, unlocking its secrets. Just how much time had she spent in here?! She'd had the ship less than a week!

He moved down the corridors to the medical bay. Perhaps the healing pod was still working. His body could certainly use a few moments in there. He found the room empty. The entire medical bay had been hollowed out as if by some giant spoon. Even the walls and floor were missing. He scowled. He had really been looking forward to that. What could she require with with an ENTIRE medical bay? She probably just removed it to annoy him.

He wandered further. Eventually something large and dark caught his eye outside the ship. Behind the ship was a large, spherical framework. It wasn't any part of Frieza's ship he could remember.

He descended through a removed wall. It looked more like she was building it rather than disassembling it... He walked closer and collected up a set of blueprints lying nearby. At the top was the title 'Gravity Room 2.0'. His eyes snapped back up to the framework. She was secretly building a new GR?! He dropped the blueprints back to the table and examined the framework a little closer. The alloys and the cables, all of it looked different to everything he'd seen on this planet. It was more advanced. Far more advanced.

She was building it from Frieza's ship! She was using Frieza's technology to build a better, more advanced GR. Fury raged in Vegeta. This one was quite a lot bigger than his out in the yard, looked stronger too. This machine was far beyond the requirements of any of her human fighters. Yet she was building it underground where he wouldn't see it... She didn't want him knowing about it. There was only one logical explanation.

/She's building a GR for Kakarot?! A GR fit for a super saiyan?!/

His mind raced back to when he asked her what she planned to do with Frieza's vessel and the the oh so coy way she had replied 'It's a secret!'. Well her 'secret' was out now and there was no way he was going to let her get away with this!

"Hey! Figures I'd find you in here. This thing's pretty useful!"

Vegeta looked behind him to see Bulma wearing a scouter.

"I found your little '**project'**_,_ woman. Did you think you could keep it from me?" He stared hatred at her.

/Traitorous woman! While she was pretending to help me become strong she was all the while secretly working to make Kakarot even stronger!/

She folded her arms and let out an unconcerned sigh. "Nope. That's why I put you on the authorized entrants list. Didn't you even notice that no alarms went off when you came in? It's not just because the security guard liked those tight little shorts."

"So you **wanted** me to see this?" Vegeta said accusingly through gritted teeth.

"No. Not yet." She glanced up. "I'd rather you'd waited until it was finished, but I knew you wouldn't be able to resist coming down here eventually. I used to do the same thing with my own presents when I was a kid. You really are a brat."

Vegeta froze. He looked at her in confusion.

/...present?/ The word limped slowly through his mind.

He looked back up at the impressive machine. This GR was... for him?

"Now come on and let's get out of here." Bulma said. "That thing's at least three months away from being ready so you're just going to have to make do with the one you've got for now. Which is finished by the way, thanks to a certain genius."

Vegeta looked back to where she was standing in the doorway.

"Come on saiyan. 300G's awaits. " She smiled flirtatiously and beckoned him to follow her. "Let's get you all hot and sweaty."


	6. Chapter 6

Vegeta felt the scar faced fighter staring in at him through the GR window.

/Irritating brat! I am a prince, not a gold fish!/

He swore if the boy started tapping on the glass he'd go out there and teach him the difference.

He reminded himself to ignore the boy and focus on training. He pushed hard, fighting to stand against the 300G force dragging him down. He felt simultaneously proud that he had achieved 300G's in just five weeks, and furious that despite the achievement he felt the same. He was not a super saiyan. He had hoped... had assumed that this intense gravity was the key. Kakarot became a super saiyan after reaching 100G's didn't he? Yet here Vegeta stood at **three** **times** that and his hair was still black. Nothing. NOTHING! Not even a spark.

Perhaps his body was just stronger to start with than Kakarot's had been. Perhaps the super saiyan form was a survival mechanism that only kicked in when a saiyan's body realized there was no other option. Perhaps the stronger you were, the harder you had to push to trigger the reaction. Or perhaps he was grasping at straws.

He roared in a mixture of physical pain and mental frustration as he stood strong against the gravity. He would NOT give up. Maybe he had reached maximum gravity on this machine but that didn't mean it was over. He would just have to find some **other** way to push his body. Dr Brief had said the battle simulator droids were nearly complete. Perhaps they would be the key. Kakarot had transformed for the first time during a battle. If he could replicate those conditions...

Vegeta worked for a while longer until he felt the woman ambling into the kitchen. That meant it must be nearly lunch time.

Monitoring her ki had gotten easier and easier with time and practice. He had slowly extended the monitoring windows until they finally linked together into a constant surveillance. Even through the night he regularly checked on her whenever he woke from 'battle flashes'. Now he used her to time his day. It was as good a way as any to pass the long hours in the silent GR.

He adjusted the gravity generator to begin his warm down routine.

He was watching her because of Dr Gero. That was why he had started anyway, but he knew it was more than that now. That move she had pulled on him in the GR still consumed him.

After the initial sting of his error and consequential defeat had worn off, the deeper sting of her dismissal had set in.

That woman had had him completely at her disposal. In those moments he had genuinely wanted her. He, a saiyan prince, had wanted her. And she'd turned him down?!

Vegeta wasn't **used** to being turned down. In fact to his memory he had **never** been turned down before. His entire life all he'd had to do to get whatever female he wanted was simply strut over and say:

"I am Prince Vegeta."

So far as 'pick-up lines' that had always done the trick on Vegeta-sai. He rather enjoyed that little gasp they often let out as they recognized his face. The way they started getting all clumsy and nervous at the fact that the crowned prince was actually talking to them!

But he wasn't on Vegeta-sai anymore. Bulma had been the first non-saiyan woman he'd ever taken an interest in. And since she wasn't saiyan she wasn't impressed by his title at all. And in the absence of that...

She'd turned him down flat.

He fumed as his competitive nature reared up. How DARE she turn him down?! And yet she maintained that pathetic weakling as her mate?! What did she see in that Yamcha that she didn't see in him? What was he lacking?

After five weeks of constantly watching her, Vegeta now knew for sure was that the woman certainly wasn't just pretending to be with that scar faced boy for her parents' sake. The woman like to flirt but she was loyal to that boy. No other male laid a hand on her and that scar face hardly peeled himself off of her. Vegeta would rather not recall just how many times he had felt their ki blending as they went at it again and again.

Although it wasn't all bad. There was always that little self assured grin that crept to Vegeta's face as he sensed the boy's ki spiking before hers. Every single time.

Vegeta smirked to himself as he summed up the boy's leading characteristics. /Can't fight. Can't f-/

But that new knowledge only created more mystery. She had turned down a saiyan prince for that?! He considered the scar face for a moment, trying to think of some, **any **redeeming quality that accounted for it. But his mind came up short.

Vegeta had thought perhaps Yamcha made up for his lack of fighting prowess with other 'talents' in the bedroom, but apparently not. Then he wondered if she enjoyed the scar face's cowardice. Of all the fighters he seemed to be the most in fear of death and as she held the dragon radar it made sense that he would obey her every whim...

... but he didn't. In fact they bickered constantly! Why did she keep him?

It wasn't that Vegeta wanted HER. He'd seen through her facade, she was so far beneath his standards that the very idea of him noticing her was laughable. And even if she weren't, he was above such weak attachments to one particular female over another. He was a true warrior. Women were a mere passtime between battles.

But ...

But...

But it was simply unacceptable that she was so utterly disinterested in him. He was… well, he was HIM!

For a few seconds she'd managed to fool him. For a few seconds, she'd managed to catch his eye. She'd had **HIS** attention. A saiyan **PRINCE!**

He kept replaying over and over that moment their mouths hovered inches apart. That moment he leaned in to make contact. Little pulses of desire charging through him as his body anticipated hers... That moment...

And she just LEFT him there?

This woman who could have had him and … didn't want him … was rapidly becoming an obsession. It felt almost like he was paying her some sort of complement by obsessing this much. Even his 'favourites' back on Vegeta-sai were out of his mind by the following day. No female had EVER held his attention so long. But this woman... in a space of a few **seconds** she had defeated him... claimed him... and walked away?!

And now he had seen through her and no longer wanted her anyway. But she gave absolutely NO opportunity for him to point that out! She had somehow claimed a sort of victory over him that day and it burned into him every time he saw her.

It was irritating. SHE was irritating! Everything about her was utterly irritating!

Blasted irritating woman! He kept searching for some sort of weakness he could exploit to regain the upper hand but the blasted creature was meticulous in her efforts to throw him off.

Irritating, infuriating, blasted human! Five weeks of constant surveillance and he knew less than he did when he arrived! Was she even in charge?! When he'd arrived she had plainly been in command. Even her own father seemed to take orders from her. Yet when it had come time to decide how to face the android threat she had been completely excluded from the decision. And though the other fighters regularly stopped by, as if they were reporting in, they never discussed ANYTHING fighting related. Often they simply sat about, eating her mother's cooking. Some even brought household appliances for her to repair.

Was she DELIBERATELY hiding her skills? A high level engineer, capable of building and repairing interstellar crafts and manipulating the fundamental laws of the universe... fixing a television?! A battle strategist, capable of rapid fire deduction and anticipation, taking orders from ... Kakarot?!

He was beginning to lean back towards his original theory that this was all an elaborate act. Was she actually hiding her power to throw him off? Playing a part to make him lower his guard? Strategically it made sense... and she was a strategist... even if she didn't seem to know it. Unless she did.

Gah! Blasted irritating woman!

He sensed her coming outside and waited for her to sit down at their usual outdoor picnic table first before exiting the GR. He walked casually over to take his place opposite her, shooting the usual disinterested scowl in her direction. He certainly wasn't about to let her know she'd gotten under his skin.

Vegeta began devouring the day's selection of dishes as she talked on about the red ribbon army and the death grip they had held on her planet. He listened to her story drag on. He considered it a test of endurance. Bulma had perfect recall, what some called an eidetic memory, and she delighted in using it to annoy him, drawing the story out in excruciating detail.

He listened in silence. It was faster. One day he had **dared** to demand she move on and she had grinned like she'd beaten him. She then instantly brought the account down to the simplified phrase "Goku fought someone!" When Vegeta demanded more than that she grinned again and said he needed to make up his mind! Did he want the details or not? Then she claimed to have 'lost her place' and started the entire story from the beginning. Irritating woman!

And so their lunches continued. Each day he learned **maddeningly** little. Still, he showed up day after day, waiting for her to let slip something useful that might help him ascend. He was beginning to wonder if she was stretching the story because she didn't want him to ascend at all. Perhaps she was just keeping him here to distract him while she eliminated the threat alone?

No.

Maybe.

Blasted woman!

After a while he realized she hadn't witnessed the actual fight between Kakarot and this army, she'd just seen the path of destruction left in its wake. That was useless to him. Vegeta let his mind wander.

The scar face hadn't shown up to lunch today. He reached out with his mind to sense him but he was masking his ki. He was up to something. The little floating cat was staring at Vegeta too closely, as if standing guard. He met its eyes and watched the nervousness build in its features.

Suddenly he felt the boy's ki skyrocket from the GR.

Vegeta smirked. /Has that fool really decided to try out the GR?/

He felt him struggling and panicking. He wondered with amusement if he'd been idiotic enough to turn it all the way up to 300.

/He'll probably die before it even gets past 100.../

He glanced across the table.

/Leaving his woman.../

Vegeta quickly pushed the anomalous thought away. He certainly had no interest in obtaining her that way. He reminded himself again he didn't actually want her.

Vegeta frowned. The boy's ki had begun to calm.

/He must have managed to shut off the generator before it killed him. Pity./

He had finished his lunch so he stood, ending 'Bulma's story time' as she delighted to call it. She looked up at him.

"You heading back to your play pen?" She said, unconcerned.

"You might want to come along. Your weakling is in there." He smirked.

Bulma's eyes widened with fearful panic as she dashed from the table.

"That idiot!" She whispered with more worry than anger as she ran across the lawn.

Vegeta walked slowly behind, letting her find him first. By the time he arrived she was past her concern and was now giving the boy an earful about the idiocy of his going into the GR. She had him bent at an awkward angle to accommodate the death grip she had on his earlobe.

"Ouch! Bulma that really hurts!" He laughed, not taking her seriously at all.

"Well you DESERVE it you idiot! What if the gravity had powered up all the way, huh? You'd be DEAD that's what. You know Shenlon won't bring you back anymore! And don't think I'm going to go all the way to New Namek just to wish your sorry butt back! It's one thing if you die protecting the earth, but if you get yourself killed for some idiot macho moment, well, you can just stay on King Kai's world and think about what you've done Mister!"

Vegeta smirked as he walked up behind her. As usual she was ahead of the game. Woman already had a plan to bring the boy back and he wasn't even dead yet.

"Aww, come on Bulma. Babe, I just wanted to try it out! If Vegeta could do it I figured I could do it too."

"You're HUMAN Yamcha!" She released his ear and folded her arms.

She stared seriously at him. "Get it into your skull, just because your one of the strongest humans ever doesn't mean you can compete with a saiyan. It's like a cat trying to challenge a lion. You're a different species so stop comparing yourself to them! If you want to get stronger let me help you."

"No way!" He laughed. "I've told you before, I'd go crazy fighting your freaky machines all day. That first one nearly killed me!"

"But it DIDN'T kill you. I programmed it not to. Come on Yamcha, just let me train you!" As soon as the words left her mouth she looked like she regretted them.

Vegeta looked at her curiously.

"**Train** me?!" Yamcha instantly picked out the vital phrase. "You?! No way! That would be completely nuts! There's no way I'm letting a GIRL train me!" He laughed.

Vegeta watched as a little twitch ran through Bulma's frame. Her eyes never faltered, but he could tell... that last remark had cut her.

Bulma looked away. "Well, fine. Train how you want, but stay OUT of the GR. You got it?"

Vegeta's eyes widened in shock. /**What?! **She's backing **down?!/**

His eyes snapped back to the boy as an overpowering anger began bubbling inside him. His fists clenched. His body tensed for a fight. /How DARE that weakling defeat her so easily. She is MY prey./

Yamcha grinned, feeling his victory. "No arguments here! I'm not going near that thing! You're crazy Vegeta."

Bulma seemed to remember Vegeta was there. She looked a little embarrassed that he'd heard all that.

"I'm going inside." She stomped back to the house.

Vegeta silently demanded she return and finish the fight! The woman needed to turn around RIGHT AWAY and put the brat in his place.

/GET BACK HERE, WOMAN! You will surrender to NO ONE but ME!/

Yamcha watched her retreat until she closed the house door behind her. "Wow. Women right? Can you believe that? I mean, she can't even throw a punch!"

Vegeta clenched his fists as his anger continued to build. Why had she backed down?! Even Vegeta could easily fire off half a dozen reasons why the woman was amply qualified to train the brat! For one she had ALREADY nearly killed him! That ALONE proved she was a worthy opponent. Why hadn't she countered? Had she done it on purpose?! Let herself lose to someone else just to irritate him?!

He looked over at the scar faced brat, fighting the overwhelming urge to beat him to a pulp daring to defeat (in seconds!) the woman Vegeta had been seeking to annihilate for five weeks straight.

"Uhhmm..." Yamcha saw the dark look in his eyes and began to back away. "Hey, I'm real sorry about going in your GR man! I swear it won't happen again!"

He scurried off.

Vegeta watched the boy take to the air and quietly added him to the growing list of people he intended to kill as soon as he ascended. His eyes glared about at the pristine flower beds in frustration as his body filled with the usual post-Bulma desire to punch something.

He flew off to rearrange the horizon a bit.


	7. Chapter 7

Vegeta threw a small disc of ki at the floating droids. They caught the reddish disk and began to bounce it between them like a volleyball, slowly increasing in speed, waiting to use it against him. He dodged out of the way as one of the units saw an opening and tried to blast a hole through him. These battle droids were good. He had been right to ask Dr Brief to build them. He had been right and no amount of dirty looks from the woman would change that.

She had been avoiding him ever since she found out he had gone to her father for the battle droids instead of to her. Every time she saw him she stared daggers at him from across the room or walked away in a huff. The last time she had spoken to him had been the day that idiot boy had gone into the GR.

Her words from that day echoed through his ears...

"Human. Not saiyan."

She hadn't meant the words for him, she had been trying to chastise her idiot mate, but the realization that she was right had taken a deep slice into Vegeta's pride.

That boy wasn't weak at all. Not by a long shot. As soon as he'd thought about those words Vegeta had realized that he too had been comparing the scar face to an average saiyan rather than to an average human. That boy had ascended so far above his own species that to compare him to an average of his race seemed absurd! Could Vegeta say the same of himself?

No. Vegeta was no super saiyan, but that boy was easily a super human. He ran the comparison over and over and every time it came out the same. When you factored in that he was human, that weakling was Vegeta's superior. The woman had always seen it. Vegeta raged that he was **again **inferior! And to another **idiot! **What was **with **this planet?

Vegeta had become even more frustrated when he'd remembered that Yamcha's astounding abilities weren't even the result of dedication and effort. He knew from Bulma's stories that the boy hardly trained at all, he simply had raw talent. If he'd been born with that kind of talent as a saiyan instead of as a human he'd probably be able to knock Vegeta down with a single punch. No wonder they were discussing offspring. With her raw talent for strategy combined with his raw fighting power... what sort of warriors would result?

Vegeta now knew **exactly** why that woman had stayed with that boy. Bulma had been thinking on a different level as usual. She was an engineer. Where others saw mere scrap she saw raw components. She saw the **man** she could build that boy into. She had found and claimed what would one day be the most impressive human male in the universe. And as the most impressive human female that meant he was her rightful mate. They belonged together. They matched.

And that was somehow more maddening than anything.

He pushed the rage down. Besides it didn't matter, he reminded himself, he wasn't going to be around long enough to see that. He would ascend as soon as possible, kill the androids and Kakarot and leave. Let the woman live out her days with that fool! See if he cared! He was a saiyan! He had battles to fight!

A droid got in a lucky shot and pain seared through Vegeta's body to mix with the already explosive anger. His control finally gave way. He erupted with angry frustration, shouting loudly and raising his ki to the maximum. The GR had already been through considerable punishment after nearly three months with him training inside, but even if it had been brand new it wouldn't have held up against the intense energy shockwave that shot from his form.

The machine cracked and exploded. Vegeta had just enough time to realize his fatal mistake before the walls then immediately imploded as the 300G's pulled the debris back in. It was like being caught in a supernova transitioning to a black hole.

The massive change in air pressure caused by the uncontrolled decompression felt like taking a direct hit to each ear from Frieza. His eardrums burst and bled. He desperately tried to remain conscious to defend himself against the giant shards of jagged metal rushing at him from every direction. He couldn't focus his eyes. He swung his fists wildly trying to fend off the biggest pieces, but they kept coming back, pulled in again by the gravity well. He felt himself taking direct hits to every part of his body as his consciousness slipped away.

/Curses./ He thought with annoyance. /I'm about to be dead again.../

Vegeta woke and looked up with unfocused eyes to see a beam if sunlight peaking through the debris. He reached a bloody hand up and pushed a piece of the GR off of him, standing slowly on quivering legs. He tested out his voice.

"I'm f-fine."

He could sense the woman's voice yelling in the distance. The sound was muffled and he couldn't make the words out.

A faint pleasure that she was at least talking to him again after their long stalemate crept into his gut before he realized he shouldn't have tried to stand up with blown ear drums. He quickly lost his balance and fell backwards.

The woman shouted his name in concern and ran over. She gathered him up in her arms and looked down into his eyes. He began to lose consciousness again. He was vaguely aware he might be talking... was he talking?

/She smells nice./ He thought quietly as he let his eyes shut.

Vegeta awoke to look at an unfamiliar ceiling. He turned an aching neck to his right to see the woman sleeping at the desk beside him.

/What's she doing here?/

She had a bowl of water and a wash cloth sitting next to her on the desk. She had been nursing him. His innards twisted in embarrassment. He knew what nursing a wounded soldier really involved. He had seen real battle, and the aftermath when the healing pods were occupied. It wasn't white sheets and wash cloths. It was bed pans and bad smells. It was humiliating for both the patient and the carer. It wasn't how he wanted anyone to see him but somehow the thought of **her** seeing him like that made it a million times worse.

Just how long had he been unconscious? He looked down to see his body was clean and dressings had been applied. Surely she would have at least left the room when they washed him. Please let her have at least done that. She began to stir.

/No no no./ He didn't want her to wake up and tease him. Or worse, pity him. He needed to get out of this room right now. Vegeta dragged his body from the bed and tried to walk.

/No good./ He gasped and collapsed to the floor.

/Flying it is./ He thought. He shot out the window.

He flew to the top of one of the city skyscrapers and collapsed up there, losing consciousness again until the following day.

By morning he felt much better. His body had really begun to heal. But he was hungry beyond belief and he didn't want to go back yet . He flew in the direction of the desert he'd trained in the last time he'd stayed on Earth.

A few days later he flew back towards the Briefs' compound. He cringed at the thought of what would meet him when he arrived. The GR was destroyed. There was little he would be able to do until a replacement was complete. He could just **imagine** what the woman was going to put him through to get her to finish the underground one for him.

He began picturing himself with a frilly pink apron over his uniform, potting pointless, pretty flowers with her wretched mother...

He scowled. Knowing the woman's twisted sense of humour that would probably be just the beginning.

But if he was to erase the humiliating episode of temporary weakness from all their memories he needed to move fast. He needed to go back there and prove to all of them that he was perfectly fine.

And he was. His fractures still sent piercing jabs through his nervous system with every movement, but he'd at least stopped feeling like throwing up every two minutes and his hands had stopped shaking. The rest was just endurance until the healing was complete.

He reached the complex and stopped short. A shiny new GR sat proudly on the lawn.

/Impossible!/ Vegeta flew down to land in front of the machine, pulled open the door and walked inside. Every surface gleamed with the crisp cleanliness of freshly manufactured components. That pleasant 'brand new' smell filled the air.

/Could Dr Brief have had a spare?/ He wondered as he walked about the room.

He walked to the control panel and paused a moment in awe. No. This was certainly not a 'spare'. This was completely different from the original. In fact this thing was incredible!

Whoever designed this was good. Very good. His eyes shot over the controls, the extreme temperature ranges, oxygen level control, it even had a cold water fountain and a drinks fridge! This was absolutely the GR 'deluxe edition'. He'd be able to ascend in no time in a machine like this!

His gaze traced along until he found a little note attached to the main control.

'Welcome Back!'

It was in pink with a kiss mark in red lipstick on the corner.

The woman. This was the GR from the underground hangers! Foolish woman had given it to him for free!

He scrunched up the note and tossed it aside.

This was perfect!

And what's more if he was found in here there would be no need to even say a word. Nothing he said would ever confirm his strength so well as the simple action of getting straight back to training would. This GR was begging to be pushed to its limits, and he was fresh from a near death experience so his power level was up, even if his fractures were still... a bit sore.

He began with 50G's and listened to the gentle hum of the shiny new generator starting up.

An hour later Vegeta's body was screaming in pain as he pushed through 400G's.

/Blasted humans! How long are they going to take before they noticed me in here?!/

He eventually felt Yamcha staring at him through the window.

/About time! That boy's constant impertinent gawking like a child at the zoo was finally useful!/

The boy flew off.

A few minutes later Bulma's face appeared on a giant screen.

Vegeta filled with excitement. Yes! **This** was the version of him he wanted her to see! Proud! Strong! On his feet and fighting!

She didn't look impressed.

"Stop it Vegeta! You're in no condition to be training right now." She stared at him angrily.

Vegeta fumed. Blasted woman! Did she not see him training at 400G's with his body in tatters?! Those were the actions of an invincible warrior! He continued training in an attempt to prove he was perfectly fine.

She didn't buy it. "I know you don't think so, but you ARE made of flesh and blood!"

Vegeta growled at the realization that she wasn't going to change her mind. She had labelled him as weak.

He pushed his disappointment aside. Why was it so important to him what she thought of him? What did he care what some random human female thought of him?

He drew breath to speak. "Stop bothering me woman. Leave me alone."

After an hour of training through the injuries the extra energy it cost to form words was all it took. He fell to the ground. The impact at 400G's ripped through his body bringing excruciating pain. He resisted the urge to gasp or cry out, but he could feel his limbs quivering as he lay on the floor.

/Curses!/ He was trying to prove his point and instead he was proving hers.

/The weakest saiyan. The weakest saiyan in the galaxy./

"You know I'm right." Bulma's superior tone continued. "So why don't you just listen to me and do what I say?"

Vegeta filled with rage. Now she was just rubbing salt in the wound! But why did he care?! For some reason it seemed like his universe revolved around her opinion of him! It made no sense! He tried again to push the irrational desire for her acknowledgement aside.

"No smart comeback?" She smiled her victorious smile. "Well, that's good. Now go back to bed and get some rest!"

"Not yet. I have something to tell you." He finally regained his voice and lifted his head to glare up at her. He REFUSED to care about her opinion. That she would never see him as a warrior again. That no matter what he achieved the pathetic image of him drooling on a pillow or quivering on the floor were all she would ever see. She wasn't his mate. He didn't even WANT her! He REFUSED to care!

"Huh? What, is something the matter?" She looked a little concerned but then it vanished.

"Or maybe you're finally going to apologize to me." She added, confidently alluding to the fiasco with the training droids. "If that's the case then let's hear it."

"Leave me ALONE!" He shouted it with every ounce of strength left in him.

Her eyes widened, but not in fear, it looked like ... pain? She shut off the monitor and was gone without another word.

A silence stretched on in the room.

Vegeta stared at the GR floor in confusion. He didn't understand that expression at all! One minute they had been fighting ... and the next she had been all sad and… hurt?

He felt an odd sinking sensation. If he didn't know better he'd have called it guilt. But that was completely absurd! He had been taken into Frieza's army at 4 years of age. Since that time an average day had involved the pleading screams of women across the galaxy as he bereaved them of their husbands, their children, their lives. It was a common, if unpleasant, part of every purge. From early childhood he had learnt to block it out and finish the job.

But now this woman shoots him a single little sad face and he starts feeling guilty?!

No. It was probably just the injuries flaring up.

He dragged himself over to the panel and turned the gravity down.

As the gravity slowly fell the pain from his injuries eased. But the odd sensation remained. He reached into the fridge and grabbed out a drink. Perhaps it was indigestion.

He continued to ponder that pained expression. The woman had obviously been hurt...

He remembered the only other time he had seen her flinch was when her mate had refused her training equipment. Well, he hasn't so much refused as laughed in her face at the very suggestion.

Vegeta suddenly realised that was odd. What sort of couple didn't train together? To a saiyan that was like refusing to eat together! He had never thought of her equipment as 'training together' but how **else** could she train with her mate? She wasn't a hand to hand fighter. Her mate wouldn't train with her? No wonder it had affected her so deeply. Why hadn't she argued?

Vegeta froze.

Why **hadn't** she argued?

She had backed down completely against the boy.

Wait... now that he thought of it, that WASN'T the only time he'd seen her back down.

Hadn't she tried to weigh in on the matters when they were discussing how best to face the android threat? She wanted to attack with cunning rather than force and Kakarot had overruled her.

Kakarot who, if Bulma's stories were any indication, swiftly accepted orders from anyone and everyone, had blatantly ignored her. He'd done so without a second's hesitation. She hadn't argued. No. Arguing wasn't the word for her response to his indifference.

She had pleaded. She had begged. And eventually, she backed down.

Vegeta dropped his drink to the floor. He started to see another pattern forming. And the guilt (that wasn't guilt) returned with new force.


	8. Chapter 8

/Two weeks... Blasted woman!/ Vegeta felt his mind beginning to trace the rage fueled track it had been circling ever since that day.

He had finally seen it that day. Two weeks ago to the day, he had seen it.

The woman wasn't in command. She wasn't trying to recruit him into her ranks. She was trying to BE recruited.

The other fighters. They had made her. She was...

'Shut out'.

On Vegeta-sai it was a punishment. To be stripped of your rank. Deemed unworthy for battle. Unfit to even participate! Forced to watch on from the sidelines as your comrades fought.

Vegeta fumed. /How **dare** they deny her access to the battle?!/

And from the look of things they didn't even have a decent reason! There was no terrible crime. No great failing.

She "Can't throw a punch." as her mate put it. That was all.

/What sort of reason is that?!/ He began to walk down the well-worn mental track again.

/Surely they cannot be so naive as to believe there is only ONE variety of warrior!/ Vegeta punched the air angrily as he executed his afternoon kata. /A warrior is one who fights a war! War is fought on MANY fronts! What sort of army has nothing but hand to hand combatants?! Such a force would be defeated in minutes!/

/Imbeciles!/ He continued to a series of high kicks. /The woman is CLEARLY a talented battle strategist!/

But the more Vegeta thought, the less likely it was that Kakarot could even PRONOUNCE the word strategist, let alone define it.

/Well, even without that, she is a skilled engineer! The very variety of scientist required to build these androids everyone's making such a fuss about!/

But would Kakarot be clever enough to make that connection? The words 'Kakarot' and 'clever' rarely belonged together...

/Well that still doesn't give them the right to look down on her! These so called 'fighters'. I SAW them cowering before Frieza. Every one of them fearing for his own skin. Yet since CHILDHOOD that woman has been hurling her weak body into the path of danger without a care! Those COWARDS have **NO RIGHT** to call themselves warriors in comparison to her. She's fearless! Does that stand for NOTHING?!/

Although she DID hide behind Krillin on Namek... But that was when she met Vegeta himself! Who could blame her for fearing someone as imposing as HIM on their first meeting? And her fear was quickly overcome long before the threat passed. Surely that should count for something?

What crime had she committed?! What great failing had she demonstrated to be thus shunned?! For a saiyan to be told they were unworthy of battle while their body and mind were perfectly sound... there was nothing WORSE!

Vegeta continued to rage against the rest of the self entitled "Z-Fighters" as he had for the past two weeks. Continually placing 100% of the blame squarely on them, with special emphasis on her scar faced mate and Kakarot with alternating preference.

And all the while a little voice in the back of his mind was condemning himself right along with them.

But that was completely absurd! He'd never said anything to even suggest the woman was lacking in fighting skill!

He refused her help because she was vile! Nothing at all to do with her qualifications.

But he knew how it must have looked... another 'real fighter' laughing in her face. Another in a lifetime of fighters laughing in her face each and every time she attempts to join the battle...

Just what would that DO to a fighter? Since childhood, being told you were worthless in battle. In the way. Unworthy. Could Vegeta have continued to try as she had? Could he have continued to hope, looking for someone who would accept him, let him join the fight?

But that woman... in all that time, she STILL hadn't given up. She'd just given up asking permission!

/Clever.../

He kept replaying how she managed to sneak in her contributions to the fight. Training equipment under the guise of 'helping out'. High level strategy under the guise of 'making conversation'. And she just showed up to the fight. Invited or not.

And then, Vegeta had arrived. A new fighter. A new chance. A way in.

All she needed was for ONE high level fighter to accept her and the rest would soon follow.

To her, Vegeta must have seemed a once in a lifetime opportunity. A warrior who had yet to make his mind up about her. And so, she had seized the chance with both hands. She had thrown everything she had into him, trying to prove herself.

In the two weeks of silence Vegeta had finally been able to fully map the efforts that woman had gone to in trying to train with him.

And the relentlessness with which he, like no doubt all before him, had tossed it in her face.

As soon as he arrived she had repaired his armor and set him up with a safe training environment. She knew he could easily provide his own meals but she also knew the better a saiyan eats, the faster he builds power, so she instantly saw to his meals as well. His response? Begrudging compliance and unending disdain.

Then he had insulted her by going to her father for the upgrade to his ship. She knew he would go to her father. She hadn't even needed a scouter to know where he was. But she still wanted to train him so she had taken the right to upgrade the GR by force. She upgraded his GR to 200G's in a single afternoon... What sort of effort had that taken to accomplish so quickly? His response? 'Ungrateful royal pain in the neck', as she put it.

Then there was 'Bulma's story time'...

He had thought she was doing it to annoy him, but in the absence of that vital break from the GR each day he had been finding it harder and harder to maintain his training momentum. She wasn't holding him back at all. In fact she was way ahead of him. She had seen what training all day alone in a tiny room would do to his mental state and she had thrown herself between him and the silence like a human shield. And in return she had received nothing but further contempt.

The care she had shown continued to mount.

When she found out the equipment was injuring him she stayed up all night to repair it. His response? Run straight to her only engineering rival and request training droids from him instead.

And then there was this GR.

Even after everything he'd done she had set aside her wounded pride and worked at what must have been an incredible pace just to finish the new machine before his return. She had given and given, worked and worked and asked nothing back but for him to accept. That was all she wanted.

And what had his response been?

Like all before him. Exactly the response she most feared: 'Leave me alone.'

And now she was leaving him alone and all he wanted was for her to come yell at him until it was all out of her system. If the blasted woman would just yell at him at least that would show she hadn't completely given up on him.

But he sure as anything wasn't going to be the first to make a move! He was **still** a prince! Princes didn't go to you. You came to them. That was simply common knowledge.

He certainly wasn't about to go crawling back to her and ask her to come back. He could just **imagine** what she'd do with that. She'd never listen to him again! And he'd done nothing wrong in the first place! He never questioned her right to participate in the fight. Hell, he thought she was in charge! It was completely HER assumption that he saw her as unfit for battle. He never said that or anything like it. He refused her help, not beause she was weak, but because she was vile! Because she annoyed him on a cellular level! Nothing more! And if she wanted to pretend he had other reasons then that was HER problem.

Why couldn't she just have ignored him when he told her to ignore him?! She had ignored **every** other order he had ever given and now the ONE order he WANTS her to ignore and she obeys. BLASTED WOMAN!

Vegeta didn't know what she was so upset about anyway. He had been using her GR non-stop since she gave it to him. He even took his lunches in there! If the woman had eyes at all she would see he was pleased with the device. Surely that should mean something! It was as close to an apology as anyone had ever gotten from him!

At least he could still see her through her ki. He tracked her constantly. He told himself he was still waiting for her to go after Dr Gero, but even Vegeta thought that sounded like an excuse now...

Vegeta continued to train in the endless silence until he sensed Bulma's ki stepping out of the Capsule Corp 'R&D' building and walking onto the lawn where his GR sat. He watched in fascination as he felt her trajectory indicate she would pass close by. She NEVER came near his GR.

She stopped outside his GR and his heart rate became slightly erratic as he watched her curiously.

She took a step towards the door. He faltered in his kata, losing his place and having to start over.

/What's she up to now?/

She climbed the steps. He messed up the kata again and started over.

/Idiot woman! You're breaking my concentration!/ He scowled at the door, waiting for her to bang on it, or call out, or in some way announce herself, but she simply stood there.

His heart was now beating far faster than it should for such a basic kata. Was she making the first move?

/Knock woman! I'm not running out there just because you decided to stop by!/ Vegeta gave up on the kata after messing it up for the third time and moved to push ups.

His eyes stayed firmly on the door. /Infuriating woman! Am I forgiven or not?!/

Not that he NEEDED to be forgiven! He was right and she was wrong. That was already decided.

Vegeta didn't know how many push ups he did. Was it 10? 50? He couldn't keep count as his mind focused unrelentingly on the blue haired anomaly outside his door.

Bulma started to walk away from the door, changing her mind. He leapt up from his position to stand pointlessly in the middle of the room. He knew full well he couldn't just open the door with the gravity up this high.

Bulma paused and turned back.

Vegeta's breath caught. He quickly dashed to the controls and shut the gravity down. He wasn't excited to see her of course. Naturally he didn't miss her. But this lurking about outside his GR was completely unacceptable and he would go out there and tell her so! He waited the seeming eternity for the generator to slowly trickle back down to 1G.

Bulma stopped at the door again. She stared at it a moment.

/Hurry up! Blasted thing. At this rate she'll be gone before I tell her to leave!/ He tapped his foot, his eyes flicking back and forth from where she stood and the endlessly slow descent of the gravity at 1G per second.

Bulma turned and leaned against the door, staring at the sky... deciding.

Vegeta clenched his fists anxiously watching the gravity tick down.

Bulma picked herself up and made it one step away, then turned to look back again.

Finally the panel made the little *ding* that told him it was safe to open the door. He raced over and grabbed it, pushing it open with so much force it nearly came away from its hinges.

Bulma made a startled noise and lost her balance as the door flung outwards towards her with a powerful gust of wind in its wake. She fell backwards down the steps.

"Ah!" He instinctively dashed down behind her and caught her by the shoulders, letting her fall against him.

She took a half second to understand why she hadn't landed on the ground. "Huh?"

She craned her neck to see who had caught her. "Oh, Hey Vegeta."

Vegeta suddenly realized he had never touched her before. She was so tiny! She was taller than him but her body was most definitely tiny! She began to try to stand and he realised he was still holding her. His hands quickly released their grip with awkward embarrassment.

"Clumsy woman! What are you doing here?!" He folded his arms over a still tingling chest where she had landed against him. He kept marvelling at the feel of her! He was accustomed to saiyan women. They were tough, muscular. Bulma was so soft! He'd never **imagined** a woman could be so soft.

/How on Kami's earth does she **exist** in such a weak body!? That simple fall down a few stairs could have really damaged her!/

She put her hands on her hips angrily. "Excuse me?! Clumsy? You're the one who practically knocked me down the stairs! Great, now I'm all gross from your sweat!"

/I-Incredible... She isn't even phased!/ He had known the woman was brave but he'd had no idea **how** brave until that moment.

/She took that weak little body into battle against Frieza?! She stands and glares threats against **ME** from inside **THAT?!**/

"What do you want, woman?" He demanded. His hands still felt hot from where he'd touched her.

She started like she had been caught. Vegeta stood quietly as an awkward silence stretched between them. He knew he wasn't forgiven for refusing her training yet. But he certainly wasn't about to apologise.

"Well?" He prompted.

Bulma flinched. "I'm getting to it!"

The silence stretched a little longer as she considered. Finally she folded her arms and glared at him. "I need a favour."

"What?" Vegeta hadn't expected that.

"rrRr! Just come with me!" She stomped away from him and he hesitated only a split second before he obediently followed.

/A favour?/ His spirits began to lift. Clever strategist! She had done it again. He could do her a favour! It was perfect! He wouldn't need to apologise and she wouldn't need to forgive him. It ended the fight and saved both their egos.

He let her lead him into the 'R&D' building as everyone called it. Vegeta had never been inside. A large sign in the foyer finally explained the title. 'Capsule Corp Research and Development'.

/Ah. R&D./ He finally understood.

She continued to walk and he tried to pretend he didn't already know exactly how to get where she was leading him. He had only watched her ki going in here almost every day. Finally they arrived at a large laboratory. Her name was on the door.

/So this is where she spends so much of her time./ He mused.

Vegeta looked around. It was certainly impressive. Machines and workbenches were everywhere but one complicated structure dominated the room above all else. It was a large tank of water. Wires and cables penetrated, surrounded and snaked away from it. A ladder led from the top down into it. It was just big enough for a person to get in.

Bulma turned around and faced Vegeta. "Ok, let's do this."

She looked squarely into his eyes. "I want you to break my arm."

Vegeta looked at her in surprise. He wasn't sure he'd heard her right. "What?"

"My left arm, about here." She pointed to half way between her elbow and her wrist. "A nice clean break if possible. You can do that, right?"

He stared at her in shock. She was serious! "Wh... Why do you want a broken arm?"

"So that I can try to heal it of course!" She put her hands on her hips and stared at him as if it was perfectly obvious. She walked over to the machine. "I've just about got this healing technology from Frieza's ship worked out. But so far I've only tested it on a skinned knee. I need something good to give it a real workout. That's where **you** come in Mr Super Soldier." She smiled at him over her shoulder.

"The droids won't break my arm," She continued, "and it would take ages to override the safety protocols to make them do it. I thought about just climbing up high and falling, but that might be all messy. I need someone who knows what they're doing. If this doesn't work I need a nice, clean break that'll heal up in a few weeks."

She turned to grin her wild grin. "So what do you say? Come on, I know you, Vegeta. You've probably been itching to do a **lot** worse than just break my arm since you got here. Here's your chance. One time offer!"

/A broken arm?! What kind if INSANE favor is that?!/ His eyes drifted longingly towards the exits. Why had he agreed to come in here again?

/But if I don't do it.../ He certainly didn't want to go back to the silent treatment she had been giving him until now. No. This was his only way back. He'd just have to get it over with.

He grinned back at her. "Are you certain you only desire one break? I'd be happy to snap you into as many pieces as you'd like."

She smiled widely. "That's the spirit! I knew you were the saiyan for the job! The machine's all set. Where do you want me?"

"I do not require a special setting, woman. Give me your arm." He stepped closer and shot her a battle grin.

Bulma returned the grin but something new crept into her features. She held out her arm for him.

Vegeta puzzled as he reached for the little arm. He could probably do this with just a few fingers. As his hand made contact the smile disappeared and the strange background emotion came to the surface.

Bulma was frightened!

Vegeta instantly pulled his hand away, desperate to remove the fear from her eyes. He hadn't seen her scared of him since Namek!

Bulma's fear turned to confusion. She tilted her head. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing woman! I'm simply savouring the moment." He lied.

"Hey , don't get too carried away there Mister!" She replied, the fear returning. "Remember! One break only!"

Vegeta felt the impossible choice before him. He needed to do this. She **wanted** him to hurt her. But the more he thought of the painful little 'crack' her bones would make in his hand the more he felt like he needed to sit down.

/What's the matter with me!?/ Vegeta prided himself on **never** hesitating! He was a trained warrior! He had purged planets! He had maimed, bereaved and killed billions! Tens of billions! This was just a broken arm on a woman who'd asked him to break it!

He reached up and took the arm again.

Bulma flinched and the powerful fear returned as she gazed into his eyes.

/Stop making that ridiculous expression!/ His mind pleaded. He wanted her to look at him with those fearless eyes from before! Fear didn't belong on her! Certainly not fear of him! Would she EVER stop fearing him if he did this?!

"Y-You're too tense!" He snapped, releasing the arm and glaring at her. "You'll cause damage if you stay tense like that!"

"Well **excuse** me! I **happen** to be about to get my arm broken!" She folded her arms over her chest and glared back at him indignantly.

"You're thinking too much!" He replied.

Bulma stared defiance at him a moment longer, then let out a little annoyed scoff. "Fine then. No thinking. Got it."

Her arms flopped to her sides and she closed her eyes.

Vegeta froze. Bulma stood quietly. Her breathing was calm. Her hands were relaxed.

She stood before him.

Fearless.

Trusting a cold, hard killer to do whatever he wanted to her.

Whatever he wanted.

To her.

He reached out and grabbed her arm again. She flinched but there was still no fear. Her eyelashes remained trustingly lowered.

He could feel his heart beating in his ears as he continued to run his fingers over the delicate skin on her arm. That tiny, weak body. Yet she was fearless. His eyes explored her face. Long eyelashes, still trustingly lowered. Soft lips, completely unguarded. His lips parted slightly as le looked at her mouth. Perfectly, patiently, two incredible lips... right there.

Vegeta's eyes kept dashing between Bulma's fearlessly closed eyelids and her incredibly tempting mouth. His whole body responded, coming alive with the powerful electricity he'd felt when he held her before.

He began to look closer, tilting his head slightly and leaning in. His mouth started aligning with hers as his nose detected a faint, delicious smell coming from her lips that quietly invited him to taste them. The powerful electricity running through him intensified.

"Vegeta?" Bulma pulled her head back a little and looked at him, wide eyed.

Vegeta froze. This was bad. Very, very bad! He quickly released her arm and scrambled for some, any explanation as to why she'd just caught him trying to kiss her.

"Th-There's a weird fruity smell coming from your mouth! I wanted to know what it was!" Oh gods that was the worst excuse in the history of excuses! There was no way she would buy that.

Bulma folded her arms and rolled her eyes. "Gosh you saiyans... You're as bad as Goku!"

Vegeta gawked. /She **bought** that?!/

"It's watermelon lip gloss." She explained with mild annoyance "And I know. It's disgusting. Believe me I hate it too."

He wasn't thrilled that she had compared him to the moron but if it got him out of this then he decided he would take his incredible luck and be grateful.

"Well, why do you apply it to yourself if you find it so displeasing?" He asked. He hadn't thought it was disgusting at all...

"Because it's Yamcha's favourite and he's not here!" She snapped.

Vegeta paused. "What?"

"He's training. He's been away for over two weeks."

"I am aware of that, woman!" Vegeta snapped, "I am simply curious that you would apply his favourite preparation in his absence! Surely it is more logical to apply it in his presence!"

"Oh no way!" She laughed. "As if I'd wear it when he's around. That boy has a big enough ego already. I only wear it when he's away."

Vegeta continued to stare, trying to work out the backwards logic she seemed to find so obvious.

Bulma sighed, realizing she was going to have to spell it out. "You see the problem is that jerk never knows when he'll be back. It could be a week or it could be a year. He just shows up on some random day or night all filthy and stinky! And he thinks it's just SO funny to sneak up and kiss me before I even know what's happening! So thanks to that **idiot,** if I want to be ready to welcome him back I have to wear this disgusting watermelon lip gloss for who knows how long until he gets here!"

She folded her arms and began to mumble incoherent insults about her mate and the inconvenience he was causing her, but the little smile playing at her mouth indicated she was not nearly so upset as she'd like him to think.

Vegeta found himself picturing what it would be like... that first little squeal as he grabbed her and kissed her as she kicked about, tasting that flavour that meant she had been waiting for him faithfully all this time, the second little noise as she realised it was him and excitedly wrapped her arms...

/Sentimental nonsense!/ His mind chastised itself for even picturing it. /A warrior would never do something so absurd./

"What sort of moronic ritual is that?" He added aloud for emphasis.

"It's a tradition!" She shouted. "They're important as a relationship gets on."

Bulma glared at him a moment to drive home the point, "So are we gonna do this or what?"

Vegeta hesitated, still looking for some way around the dreaded task.

Suddenly Bulma peaked out of one eye. "By the way if you tell Yamcha about that lip gloss thing I'll personally replace all your clothes with frilly pink stuff, you got it?"

She closed her eyes again.

A vice tightened around Vegeta's heart. /The boy doesn't even know she does it?/

She waited for that fighter, but she didn't tell him so and she wouldn't let anyone else tell him either. Those weren't the actions of a strategist. Those were the actions of a dedicated mate.

He gradually came to terms with the idea. The woman wasn't with that boy for any scheme. There was no hidden secret. No code to crack. There was no reason why she wanted him or why she didn't want Vegeta.

She had selected Yamcha as her mate.

She wanted to spend her life at his side.

And no matter how strong Vegeta became she would never want him. Her heart belonged to that boy and it always would.

A sudden weakened, defeated feeling swept through him. He pushed it aside.

He hadn't wanted her anyway! What sort of soldier wanted a soft, warm creature at home with his favourite kiss on her mouth. What sort of weakling desired something like that?

He was a warrior! He was above such sentimental nonsense. He stepped closer, running his hand up her arm without making contact.

He looked at her. Quiet. Trusting. Beautiful. Off limits.

He looked at the arm.

Blasted woman deserved it for leading him on like this. He grabbed the arm up roughly and ...

His hand wouldn't move.

He pressed himself. /Blasted hand! What does it matter what I do to this woman! She's NOTHING to me!/

His mind began re-envisioning the little 'snap' as her bones gave way in his fingers. His body's reaction kicked in again but this time it was even more overwhelming. His heart seemed to scream out against hurting the delicate limb. His gut twisted and wrenched and his hand felt suddenly weak as his body refused to operate it. His body had never reacted so strongly against anything in his life!

He looked down at his hand over her delicate arm.

Then back at those perfect lips that waited for someone else.

He gazed at her a moment longer. Then stepped back.

*CRACK!*

Bulma opened her eyes to see Vegeta standing with one arm hanging limp at an awkward angle.

"Vegeta you idiot!" She yelled at him, furious. "MY arm! I said break MY arm! What were you thinking you dope?!"

Vegeta smirked. "As if I would waste my skills on a pathetically weak opponent like you."

"You moron!" She poked her finger into his chest. "You only JUST finished healing! How are you supposed to train with a broken arm?"

"Well, you'll just have to heal me then, won't you?" He said back challengingly.

"I'm not even sure if this thing works!" She shouted.

"Well what say we find out?" He smiled wider.

She scowled at him. "Fine. But even if it works you're **still** an idiot! Go get in that tank and put the oxygen mask on. You'll see it when you get up there."

Vegeta complied. He watched from inside the tank as she nervously re-evaluated the machine now that it was going to be used on someone else. She started double checking every inch of it.

Vegeta gawked. He had never watched her work before. It was... impressive.

She moved with professional ease. Intelligent blue eyes darted left and right and clever hands checked connections confidently. This was her element. He particularly enjoyed when she reached a single hand to a keyboard and typed at lightning speed without even looking at it.

He waited patiently and considered his recent defeat while he watched her moving gracefully about.

Vegeta refused to wallow. That was for weaklings. The human woman had chosen. And it was perfectly fine because Vegeta didn't need some pathetic human. Not her or anyone else. He was a warrior. He fought alone.

Finally she stepped away from the computer , biting her lip as her eyes dashed between him and the machine, checking every component one last time. Vegeta watched her finally, hesitantly press a single key.

He felt her nervousness infecting him slightly. There was a gentle hum before the familiar healing rays began penetrating his body. His cells began to revive. Injuries healed. There was a sharp pain as the broken bone straightened, then an itching as it mended. Vegeta watched Bulma's expression slowly shifting from nervous apprehension to hope and finally to a joyous excitement unlike anything he'd ever imagined.

She had done it.

**Okay everyone I am abandoning this story. Don't panic - the ending is posted.**

**Let me translate:**

**This was a RE-WRITE. There was an original story, which I changed. The gist of the re-write was to change Bulma from a 'stone cold strategist' into a 'fiercely loyal mate' to Yamcha. Vegeta was turned on by the 'cold strategist', but I found it hard to progress him beyond 'attraction'. In the re-write I had him notice her 'strategy' and 'power', but also her consistent devotion to Yamcha despite his being (in Vegeta's opinion) pathetic, disloyal and unaware of what he has. **

**Vegeta knows it's idiotic to be MORE attracted to her BECAUSE of her loyalty to another man, but he can't help but picture what it would be like to have someone as loyal as her. Both versions of her made her simultaneously attractive and unobtainable to Vegeta, but you'll see inconsistencies as the story progresses where the story still calls her 'cold'/ 'emotionless' etc.**

**There are still a few re-written chapters coming up, and the one above is 'clumsy' because I gave up on it and just waffled an ending to put it to rest.**

**Basically the story is 'unfinished', but I decided to post, rather than delete, since the ending was the same and there are a lot of new readers who would be sad if they never saw the end.**


	9. Chapter 9

"What?!"

Vegeta looked at Bulma's annoyed expression. She glared at him over the table. They had started having lunch together again. When she'd finished telling him about Kakarot's near death experience and sudden power boost while fighting Piccolo. He'd been unsurprised. He'd mentioned casually that saiyans always came back much stronger after near death experiences. He certainly hadn't expected her to look so irritated at the revelation.

"Well why didn't you say so BEFORE?! Great, now I have to redesign where the pod will go..." She folded her arms and looked at the sky. "I had it all worked out so perfectly too."

"The pod?"

"Your healing pod. For the GR?" She took a bite of her toast, not sure why he'd asked such an obvious question. "I was going to put it on the side, but if that's the case then it should go underneath. You don't want to be going in there while you can still walk. Probably some sort of trapdoor would do it...Aah but there's solid circuitry and engine stuff down there..." She stared up at the sky.

Vegeta looked at her. He had assumed the pod was for her father's company. He had been eyeing up the prototype, figuring out a way to get her to keep it on hand for him. Now he found out she was planning to install a finished version straight into his GR.

She looked back at him. "Any OTHER surprises I should know about?"

"No." Vegeta stood and walked back to the GR. What did she mean 'While he could still walk?'

* * *

A few weeks later Vegeta stood leaning against the house trying not to look at Bulma's body as she crawled around installing his new pod. Mrs Brief stood across the yard watering flowers. She let out a giggle as she caught him looking a little hot under the collar, letting his eyes wonder over Bulma's figure again. He quickly scowled and looked away.

Bulma had eventually decided to install a laundry shoot style door low down on the wall so that Vegeta could just lean against it and his body weight would pull him down to the pod.

Her "rest and recover" attitude was gone. She wanted him at the edge of death, preferably several times a day. When she talked like that she was just so hot it was all he could do to keep from pinning her to the nearest wall and... Vegeta tried to push the graphic images out of his head. He wasn't attracted to her. She was just a fresh recruit like a hundred other fresh recruits he'd worked with over his time. He kept saying it. He kept trying to get used to this new, strange relationship, but she sure as hell wasn't making it easy. If she would just stop talking like that... And dressing like that... And looking like that...

He reminded himself again.

He didn't want her. There was no way he wanted some pathetic human woman. On top of which she already had a mate. Not that he cared because he didn't want her. He scowled. He was just bored. That must have been it. He was bored. He'd been on this planet too long without a decent battle to amuse him. He didn't want her. That vulgar woman wasn't sexy at all.

Bulma dusted her hands before waving to him. "Hey! All done your majesty! Come check it out!"

Vegeta walked over. She talked him through the basics. "So I've designed it to be operated while you're semi-conscious but passing out is a no-no until you're inside Ok?"

'Semi-conscious'...'passing out'... His body heated up without his permission again. Damn the woman had mastered saiyan 'dirty talk' fast. It seemed like every time he saw her she was talking about how she wanted him on the floor, weakened and at her mercy after a fierce fight. Were she actually a saiyan woman the next lines, which his mind could far too easily provide, would be to articulate in detail what she would do to his body now that he couldn't resist.

But he knew her personality. If he told her this was how saiyans... That woman. He just KNEW she'd triple it rather that stop.

She sat on the floor and leaned against the wall, giving him a perfect angle to see down her top. He clenched his jaw. He was glad his eyes were already pitch black so she couldn't see his pupils widen . "If you're too weak to push it open just press this button here." She indicated a large, orange button next to the door. "And the door opens on its own. Then slide in, grab the mask and put it over your nose and mouth. The pod will do the rest."

"Hn." Vegeta nodded. Folding his arms to keep his hands occupied. He'd never been so aware of his hands before.

"There's a maintenance sequence after each use, to clean up all the blood and such, that takes about 30 minutes so don't come out until you're fully healed."

She picked herself up. "Ok! Have a great battle! But no dying!" She turned to leave.

"There's something else I require, woman." Vegeta didn't look at her.

"Huh?" She looked back at him from the doorway. "What's up?"

"The battle droids your father made will not be able to challenge me at the level I require."

"You want me to ask dad to upgrade them?" She asked, thinly masking her annoyance.

"No." He said "I will continue to use them until you can provide a suitable replacement."

Bulma's eyes widened. "M-Me...?" Had Vegeta just asked her to design his next battle droids? "Don't kid around Vegeta."

"I don't 'kid around' woman. How soon can you have the replacements ready?"

Her eyes lit up. "That depends, can you help me carry them?"

A few minutes later Vegeta stood gawking at the array of battle robots that lay before him.

He picked up a particularly intimidating looking pair, covered in Frieza's weapons, they were dusty. "Not those." Bulma said. "You're past those now, they're just for parts." She searched through until she found a small, uneventful little one. "This little guy should give you a good workout." She smiled proudly at it. "Well, at high gravity anyway. None of them would stand a chance out here. There should be more of these, six all up. See if you can find them."

"Where did you get these?" Vegeta couldn't resist asking.

"I built them." She said cheerfully, standing tall with a hand on her hip, "I was about to show them off, but a certain ungrateful Prince didn't want them, so I started building the healing pod." She folded her arms and looked at the droids. "Looking back I probably should have started with that instead. I figured it would only be a matter of time before you did something stupid and got hurt. I just didn't factor in how quickly your stupidity would kick in."

Vegeta felt a little twinge of something resembling guilt. He picked through, looking for the little droids.

"Hey loosen up!" Bulma said, tossing a spare part at him. "Gosh it's no big deal! It's probably for the best. I got kind of carried away when I was designing these so they're pretty tough. You're going to be glad you have that pod to crawl in to."

Vegeta saw the jab for the peace offering it was. "You're awfully confident, woman."

"That's right! I know my own designs and you'd better watch out." She winked at him.

Once they were back at the GR she began running through instructions.

"Ok, you switch them on right here." She pointed to a little indentation on the side. "Don't worry about switching them off. They're programmed to just go until you stop fighting." She turned to leave.

Vegeta smirked at the subtle but deliberate implication that they would beat him. "What do they do?"

"If I told you that it wouldn't be much like a real battle now would it?" She said over her shoulder. "Have fun!"

Vegeta watched her retreating form through the doorway, enjoying the view for a moment before closing the door and dialing up the gravity to 500G's. He waited a few moments for the gravity to plateau, then picked up the first little droid. He pressed the indentation and all six droids sprung to life and flew to strategic positions around the room. They began to glow.

Later that night Vegeta dragged himself into the house. He had come close to just sleeping in the healing pod, but he was starving, and his pride wouldn't allow her to find him in there the next morning. Those little bots didn't disappoint. Their shells were super heated. You tried to hold one for more than a second and it'd burn straight through your hand, the only way to fend them off was with quick punches and kicks. If you hit them with ki they just absorbed it and sent it back at you. Plus he was sure they were intelligent, they kept learning his moves and adapting, getting stronger with each fight. If he hadn't had the pod to escape to... well, it sufficed to say the woman was good. Her design made her father's droids look like a kindergarten toy.

He sat at the table the kitchen had laid with dishes for him and began devouring his dinner. He felt his energy returning. He'd been fighting so hard he hadn't even had the energy to track the woman. He listened for her ki and frowned.

She was with the scar face.

He was back.


	10. Chapter 10

Vegeta walked over from the GR. He scowled. The scar face was sitting by Bulma as usual. Not that Vegeta cared. The woman was nothing to him. He approached the outdoor table and sat down. Yamcha moved imperceptibly closer to Bulma and smiled up at him, but it more resembled a wolf bearing its teeth than a smile.

Vegeta didn't care about the idiot's unfounded suspicions. The woman was nothing just a tool to help him defeat Kakarot. Just a human. Nothing to him.

Bulma grinned up at him. "Hey you. Still alive I see."

Vegeta returned her grin with his own cocky smirk but didn't reply. It was new battle droid day. Each week she provided him with a new improved opponent to fight against. Vegeta began to eat. He had worked his way through eight generations thus far. He had thought the first ones were tough. Now he knew she had only been playing around with them. They were practically the product of a bored afternoon. Since then she had really gotten serious. The healing pod gave her license to push the boundaries of what she could build. She genuinely worked with the goal of making something capable of killing him.

Somehow it felt like she herself was fighting him in the GR each day. It was hard to keep the two separate in his mind, but it was vital that he did. If he started to think of her fighting him on that level then he couldn't see her as a pathetic human weakling anymore. She would become a formidable warrior again. And the minute he started to think of her as a warrior then he started to think of her in a million other ways that he didn't want to deal with. No, she was just a scientist. Just a tool. Just a human. Not a strategist. Not a fighter. Certainly not a fighter.

Vegeta watched as Yamcha casually slung an arm over her shoulder. The boy had taken to hanging off of her every time he saw Vegeta nearby. Bulma fidgeted uncomfortably under the unwelcome display of affection. She wasn't the sort who liked to sit under her boyfriend's arm all day, but she put up with it for Yamcha's sake. Vegeta looked back at his food. He refused to care where the idiot put his hands.

"Well?" She said curiously. "Come on. What'd you think?"

"They're still not fast enough." He said between mouthfuls.

"Not FAST enough?!" She jumped from her seat. "Listen bub! You know those little popping noises they make? They aren't special effects you know. That's the sound barrier! Breaking!" She flopped back in her chair. "Not fast enough...ungrateful royal jerk." She mumbled grumpily to herself.

Vegeta kept his expression straight as he laughed inwardly. He loved getting her all annoyed.

"Hey babe calm down!" Yamcha put his arm back over her shoulder. "Come on, it's just Vegeta. Don't let him work you up."

"How many times did my 'slow' droids put you in that pod today huh?" She shot a challenging glare at him.

Vegeta continued to eat. Ignoring the question. He wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of knowing he'd spent more time in the pod than out of it that morning.

She smiled victoriously, knowing what his silence implied. "That's what I thought." She crowed.

"Hey, come on." Yamcha laughed. "Play nice you two."

Yamcha had been back for two months now. Despite his 'training' since he got back he still managed to find time to make the trip back to the Briefs compound for lunch every day. He'd spent the first few weeks trying to put a permanent end to their regular lunches together. He deliberately cut in to Bulma's stories, giving away major plot points to force her to move on. After three weeks of that Bulma had finally run out of stories about her and Kakarot. But to the scar face's irritation their lunches had continued. Now they discussed battle droid designs and training regimens. Instead of separating them he had pushed them closer together.

Now he sat there, hanging off of her, distracting her. Trying to do everything in his power to get between her and Vegeta. Bulma tolerated it, but Vegeta could tell she was as irritated by the scar face's jealousy as he was. There was nothing to be jealous of. She was helping Vegeta train. Vegeta was letting her. Nothing more. Thanks woman had chosen that boy. The idiot just couldn't see it.

Vegeta and Bulma continued to trade verbal punches for a while.

"Hey babe, you're letting this take control of your life! Come on, it's just training, relax a little!" Yamcha laughed.

Vegeta let out a little scoff.

Bulma crossed her arms and looked angrily ashamed of her boyfriend. "Relax?" She said, finally turning her attention to him. "Is that what you were doing while you were away in the mountains? Relaxing? That sure explains a lot."

"Hey... what's that supposed to mean?" He said with his usual half grin.

"Only that your fighting power sure didn't change much for someone who was doing nothing but training for two whole months." She glared at him suspiciously.

"Aww, come on babe. That's harsh." He replied with a slight pout. "Those scouter things aren't accurate, you know that."

"They're accurate enough to tell me you can't have been working THAT hard." She said back.

"I was too! I was working REALLY hard. Puar can tell you." He could see she wasn't buying it. "Aww, come on. So I took a few gap days now and then. But between that I was really training."

"I KNEW IT!" She turned vehemently. "You were goofing off at the beach, WEREN'T you?"

"No way! I was only at the beach for, like, two days max!" He scratched his head bashfully. "Come on, Bulma. You're usually the one telling the guys not to get too caught up in training 24/7. What's gotten into you lately?"

"I only say that when I can see they're wearing themselves out with no purpose. There's a difference between taking a break to clear your head and get some perspective, and just plain goofing off!"

"Well I think it's YOUR turn to 'get some perspective'." Yamcha countered. "When's the last time we went on a date, huh?"

That question knocked Bulma straight down from her high ground. Seeing he was beginning to win the argument, Yamcha continued.

"Or just went out somewhere? We've hardly done anything since I got back. You're always too busy. You spend all day and night helping that guy get stronger. I know the androids are coming but that's still over TWO YEARS away. Do you really want to spend the whole time sitting around in that lab building robots for him to break?"

Bulma paused a moment to glare at the scar face. Angry and guilty at the same time. "rrRrr! FINE!" She finally shouted. "We'll go out if it's so important to you!"

"About time!" Yamcha said victoriously. "Hey how about that costume party next weekend? That looked like fun. We can go looking for costumes together too."

Vegeta stood from the table. He had finished eating and he didn't feel like listening to them plan their date. He walked back to the GR.

A few days later Vegeta lay in bed and grimaced at the ceiling. He could feel the woman's ki blending with the scar face's again. They were having sex. Ever since their little 'lover's spat' the two of them had been at it every night.

He didn't want to sense it. Why why why did he learn to sense ki? He tried to block it out. Tried to distract his mind. But he was in the habit of watching her ki and he couldn't turn it off anymore.

/It should be over soon anyway./ He thought to himself as he rolled on to his side. The scar face never lasted more than a few minutes before his ki spiked and tapered off. Vegeta's eyes snapped open as he realized something. Surely that couldn't be right...

That woman's body was weak. Soft and small and delicate... The boy might not be saiyan, but his battle power was absurdly high for a human. His stamina should have easily overcome hers... What exactly was she **doing** to him in there to make him...?

Vegeta swallowed hard. He felt his face heat up.

/No. Don't think about it. Just... don't think about it./ He tried to regain control of his body and mind, desperately focusing on his breathing.

He felt the boy's ki spike before hers as usual.

/Lucky bastard./


	11. Chapter 11

Vegeta had reached 1,000G's that day and the frustration was back. How could he not be a super saiyan? He had done everything! The near death battles, the extreme conditions, what was Kakarot's secret? What more was required? He felt the usual competitive hatred building in him as he searched for an explanation. He stomped back toward the house. He was hungry and filthy. He wasn't going to get any further that night. He sat down at the table and started in on his food.

He felt Bulma's approach before he saw her. "Oh, found you." She said, walking around the corner, tapping the scouter over her ear.

Vegeta stopped breathing. She was... What was she wearing?

Bulma stood in a sort of blue, furry swimsuit. The leg openings were cut high and the sides were sliced out, showing the perfect curve of her figure. The halter neck accentuated her ample bust. It was all exactly matched to her hair. Her hair... her hair had been straightened. Her bangs hung over her forehead and a little pair of blue, pointy animal ears sat on top of a headband.

"W-What's with that ridiculous outfit?!" He demanded. Finally regaining the power of speech. He felt an electric heat pulsing through his entire body and he was very very grateful for the large table over his hips.

"Oh this? It's for the costume party tonight. Isn't it cool?" She looked down. "Puar and I decided to go as a matching set. I'm a blue cat too." She twisted in a little pose, then laughed and looked down at herself obviously pleased with the result of her efforts. "Oh hey, check out my favorite part! I made it myself." She reached to one of her ears and pinched it as she turned around.

That's when Vegeta's heart stopped.

A long, blue tail spring to life behind her. It was of the same blue fur that matched her hair. It looked incredibly real, impossibly real. It moved and snaked through the air and around her body. Vegeta gripped the chair, hypnotized.

/T-Tail.../ Bulma looked nothing like a cat. That tail... With that tail... and the scouter... she looked like a saiyan. She looked like the hottest saiyan in the galaxy.

His heart restarted with a powerful speed. It pounded. It pounded louder than it had in any battle. He could hear it in his ears, feel it in his chest. Could she hear it from over there? He was sure it was possible. It was so loud...

"The costumes in the stores were just so lame." She continued talking. "They didn't fit well and they didn't move at all. The tails just hung there looking fake. So I decided to make my own. I did it with mini hover engines set on a random flight pattern. It's pretty cool, right?" She looked back over her shoulder at him.

"Vegeta?"

Vegeta hadn't heard a word of that. He was busy right then. Torn between his panic over his absurd heartbeat and a strange hypnosis effect from watching that perfect tail move lightly around her body. "Yoohoo!" She waved at him. "Hey, you know, I think you've been in that GR too long Mister." She folded her arms and quirked her head at him in mild concern. "Anyway, I just came to let you know I probably won't make it to lunch tomorrow. These things usually run pretty late. I'd better go. Yamcha's waiting."

She turned and left. Silky strait hair fluttered down her back and that long, impossible tail stretched and curled seductively behind her.

Vegeta sat frozen in place a few moments, finally regaining the power of breath he gripped the chair and began to pant. He looked down. He needed a shower. Now.

Vegeta stared at the shower head. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her. He saw her in that outfit, with that scouter, with that long silky hair and that perfect tail. He tried desperately to think of anything else, but rather than obliging his mind simply began to provide increasingly graphic images of her in that outfit. Her in that outfit with the gravity turned just high enough that she couldn't run away as he stalked towards her. Her in that outfit against the floor with her tail between his teeth and his name quivering through her lips... Vegeta braced himself against the wall. /She's not a saiyan. She's not a saiyan. She's not a saiyan/ He repeated it over and over and over but his body didn't care. How was he going to look at her again? Until now it has just been attraction but this... This was different. This was **incredibly **powerful. He wanted her. His body wanted her more than air.

A few hours later Vegeta had given up on the shower. He lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. He had tried to sleep, hoping that if he slept perhaps the burning need for her that filled him would ease. He'd managed to drift off twice now. Each time he'd woken up covered in sweat, moaning her name. The desire for her wasn't going away. He'd always been able to make it go away before, but not this time. This time it just kept getting stronger. He knew he could never look at her again. He'd have to leave. Leave and never return. It seemed the best and only option. She had a mate. She would never see him in that way and the thought of looking at her day after day without being able to touch her was unbearable. No. He would not sit around pining for some woman who didn't even want him. He had to leave. He got up and began to gather his things.

He stopped dead. They were back. He felt her ki approaching with the boy's. Vegeta watched the boy land the hover car. Bulma was out like a shot and began to storm towards the house, she looked mad. "Don't bother! It's OVER you jerk!"

"Bulma, wait!" Yamcha called after her. He flew past and landed in front of her, cutting her off. "Babe come on! She's just an old friend. We were catching up on old times!"

"You know how stupid you sound when you say that?" Bulma stopped in front of him with clenched fists. "I was right there Yamcha. You were FLIRTING with her you two-timing JERK!"

"Bulma, come on. It's not LIKE that." Yamcha said as he continued to block her approach to the house.

Vegeta gaped at the boy. He'd had her right in front of him, looking like that, and he'd managed to look at another female?! If Vegeta had been there he'd have spent the entire party destroying any male who looked at his woman.

"Oh really?" Bulma shot back, "Because it sure looked like that to me. And to everyone else there. And what's even worse is that you KNOW the kind of woman she is. You KNOW what she did to Krillin. They were practically engaged! How do you think he'll feel if he finds out you spent the whole night with your hands all over his ex?! What sort of friend does that?"

"I told you, I wasn't flirting with her! Come on babe. Why can't you just believe me?" He said pleadingly.

"I saw what I saw, you were all over her! And it's not the first time." She shot.

"Well, you're not exactly one to talk." He shot back indignantly.

"What's THAT supposed to mean?!" Bulma shouted.

"Oh please! You flirt with Vegeta all day! Even while I'm standing right there!" He shouted back.

"Oh not this AGAIN! How many times do I have to say it, there is NOTHING going on between us. I flirt with him because it annoys him. It's JUST a GAME we play." Bulma looked exasperated. "Will you quit being jealous of Vegeta already? He's a saiyan for crying out loud!"

"What's that got to do with anything?!" Yamcha shouted back.

Vegeta leaned in. He kind of wanted to know the answer to that one too.

"They're warriors." She said simply. "They send their kids off before they can even talk. Even Goku instinctively left his family to go train as soon as possible. They OBVIOUSLY don't get into the whole falling in love thing. They probably just have breeding pairs or mating grounds or something."

She folded her arms. "If I thought for one second that Vegeta might have a thing for me there's NO WAY I'd flirt with him. But he doesn't! If you asked him I'll bet he doesn't even know what color my eyes are! "

/Blue... / Vegeta's mind provided easily.

/Like the bright, hot centre of a flame.../ His heart added quietly.

He gawked. No wonder she hadn't noticed. She thought he wasn't genetically capable of falling for her.

"Well maybe he doesn't have a thing for you, but what about YOU?" Yamcha challenged.

"What? What ABOUT me?!" She replied.

"Come on! Working on those battle droids for him, repairing his gravity room for him. He just snaps his fingers and you come running."

"That's got nothing to do with anything! I just finally found someone who'll let me fight and I don't want to waste this chance." She said.

"So you like fighting with him, is that it? Well that sounds pretty suspicious to me." He said, feeling himself gain the upper hand.

"Not WITH him, you dope, THROUGH him!" She shouted.

Yamcha hesitated. "What? Through him? What's that even mean?"

"Do you know what it's been like for me these past 5 years? Huh?" Bulma really began to look upset. "At least when we were kids I could be useful. I could buy the food or drive the submarine or fix the motorcycle. It wasn't much but it was something and I was part of the team. But these days... I just sit here! Just watching you all go into battle against these freaks who can blow up planets with their fingers! And do you know what I watched? You died. Goku died. Krillin died. Everyone died and I just sat there and hid where I wouldn't get in the way. I've been completely useless!"

Bulma lowered her head and a shudder ran through her as she fought back tears.

"Bulma..." Yamcha didn't know what to say.

She looked back up and the fighter in her was back. "Vegeta let's me fight. He let's me pour my strength into him like that Nail guy did to Piccolo. I know it's not much. I know he could get stronger with or without me, but if I can add even 5% to his power I'm going to do it. And then, he's going to take that strength and use it against the androids. And he'll hit that little bit harder because of me. And it'll be like I'm fighting at his side."

Vegeta's eyes stared in disbelief at the little blue saiyan. 'Fighting at his side...' Her words made him feel like his heart would explode. He felt the ways in which he wanted her deepening again.

"Bulma, that's crazy, that guy can't be trusted." Yamcha pleaded.

"Well, that makes two of you!" She shouted and stormed back towards the house.

"Bulma wait!" He swiftly appeared in front of her again, cutting her off.

"Let me pass you jerk!"

"Bulma come on, just hear me out!" She kept trying to get around him and he kept using his speed against her.

"No! I said it's over and I meant it. Go back to one of your empty headed bimbos! We're through!" She punctuated the last phrase by hurling her hand over to slap him on the cheek but Yamcha just caught her by the wrist.

"LET GO OF ME!" She screamed in rage.

"Not until you-" Yamcha never got to finish that sentence. A sequence of blows too fast for him to see separated his hand from her and sent him flying across the grass. He looked up to see Vegeta standing between him and Bulma with a death glare aimed at him.

"Vegeta..." Bulma looked at his unmistakable silhouette.

"Tch." Yamcha spat and rubbed at his mouth. "Vegeta. Figures you were watching."

"Leave." Vegeta growled. "Do not let me see your face here again."

Yamcha stood. "I bet you know **exactly** what colour they are." He said accusingly and flew off.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Bulma shouted from behind him.

"He was making a racket." Vegeta replied in his usual masked voice.

"I was HANDLING it!" She shouted.

That was when Vegeta made the ultimate mistake of turning to look at her. The image that met him would be burned into his mind and heart forever.

Bulma was lit brightly by the full moon. She stood with her legs bent and slightly apart and her body leaned forward. He knew it was unsteadiness from the alcohol, but it looked exactly like a battle pose. Her fists were clenched angrily at her sides and her eyes flamed with a fighter's spirit as her tail continued to dance gently around her.

"Do NOT fight my battles for me Vegeta! That was MY fight and I would have finished it!"

Vegeta's eyes widened and his breath caught. It had taken Bulma dressing up as a saiyan and shouting about battle, but finally he saw it.

That was it! That was why he couldn't stop thinking about her! Why he hadn't been able to take his eyes off of her! Why his body kept reaching for her! She was saiyan! Not her body, but her instincts, her heart. Everything she did and said was absolutely saiyan!

As the mental 'species barrier' fell it released a powerful new emotion. The frighteningly strong sensation broke out, past the simple physical passion his body had been throwing up to contain it until then. It was a new level of desire stronger than anything Vegeta had felt for any woman before. She was everything he missed from his past combined with everything he wanted for his future. Deep longing spread throughout his system until it filled every corner of his every cell. He wanted her. Not just her body.

**Her**.

Vegeta cursed.

What on Kami's earth was he supposed to do with a pointless emotion like this?!

He flew back to his room, leaving the woman of his dreams glaring after him.


	12. Chapter 12

Vegeta stood silently in his darkened room staring at his uniform. When it came down to it, that was the only thing he could call his own. Even it had been extensively repaired by her. He looked at it, folded neatly on the bed. He could put it on now. He could just put it on and go. An hour ago he'd been about to do just that... but things had changed since then. He stared down at it, as if it could somehow provide the answer he was looking for.

On the one hand, the woman was now free of her mate. That opened a world of possibilities. But he was well aware she and the boy often broke apart. They always came back together before long.

Plus she had made it clear that she didn't consider him in any relationship beyond their current one. 'If I thought for one second that Vegeta might have a thing for me there's NO WAY I'd flirt with him.' Those had been her words.

And then there was the problem of what he would do if he stayed. How exactly was he supposed to exist around her? How was he going to sit opposite her each and every day and talk casually as if he still thought of her as just 'the woman'? His mind had made the transition now, she was more to him.

Perhaps he could bluff for a while, as he had feigned loyalty under Frieza, but for how long? Bulma was clever. How long would it take her to figure it out? And when she did, what would she do?

Laugh?

Run?

Pity him?

None of those options were appealing. He looked out the window. Where would he go? The desert held no challenge for him after battling her creations at 1,000G's.

He needed time to think.

He needed time.

He saw the first little wisps of dawn peaking over the horizon. Bulma had said she wouldn't be coming to lunch today.

He had one day.

He moved through his day. Wracking his brain, searching for a solution. Breakfast. Training. Lunch. Training. Dinner. The time seemed to disappear in an instant. The sun set. He went back to the GR, not wanting to let the day end just yet. He fought into the night. His body began to slow as exhaustion took its toll. The droids gained the upper hand. Cornering him. Making him use desperate moves to fend them off. That's when the Prince in him kicked back in. He was letting her turn him into a weakling. /This is idiotic! This shouldn't be important!/ Kakarot. Super saiyan. THAT was what mattered. He needed to become stronger. He needed to get his focus back. This attraction to her was impeding his ability to achieve his goal.

A thought occurred to him. This attraction. Once he isolated it from himself it more and more closely resembled an opponent to defeat. It was an obstacle to his progress. It stood between him and his goal. An opponent. His spirit picked up. He could do that. He could defeat an opponent.

He felt his body revive. His saiyan blood began to respond to the idea of a new challenge. That was it. He just needed to crush this as the enemy it was. He felt Bulma sitting in her lab. She was alone.

Vegeta applied basic battle strategy. The first step in defeating a new opponent was to get intelligence on their strength. He'd go in there and see how badly he was affected. Find out exactly what he was up against. He jumped in the healing pod while the gravity slowly powered down, then moved himself towards the lab.

To his surprise the room was dark. He looked in. A tiny lamp was on at one of the workstations. Bulma sat alone, the light bathing her features gently. There was a bottle and a glass in front of her and a photo frame in her hand. She stared at it with a half bored expression, resting her chin in her other hand.

Vegeta felt a slight squeezing in his chest and his whole body began to tense, but he could still breathe and move freely. This wasn't so bad. He decided to get closer, wanting to test himself out at various proximities. Vegeta began slowly walking across the room to her. Bulma didn't hear him. She wouldn't unless he wanted her to. He had been concerned that the overpowering reaction he'd had at the sight of her in the saiyan costume would return, but now as he moved over towards her he was pleased to discover he felt in complete control of his body and breathing. Save for the tightening twist in his chest and mild nervous tension, this was no more difficult than sneaking up on Frieza had been.

He got to be standing directly behind her. Her hair hung silkily down her back. His hands began to feel awkward and wrong at his sides, but aside from that he was Ok.

Curiosity caused him to glance at the picture in the frame. It was a group shot. Vegeta recognized everyone in the image except one. A girl with long, blue hair similar to Bulma's. Other than that it seemed to be a picture of Bulma and her friends. Bulma stood next to the scar face in the photo, but Vegeta could see Bulma wasn't looking at the photo because of him. A superior air hung about her as she stared down her nose at the blue haired girl.

Bulma put the frame on the desk a moment to take another sip of her drink. The brown liquid smelled strongly of alcohol. She set the cup down and picked the photo back up, exhaling softly and continuing to stare at it with that same bored, superior expression.

Vegeta moved back to the doorway. So far so good. He felt ready to test the damage the attraction caused when her eyes were on him. Right now, while she was under the effects of the alcohol, he wasn't going to get a better opportunity than this. He cleared his throat and stepped into the room loudly.

Bulma looked over at him. "Vegeta?" She put the photo frame face down on the desk.

His heart rate accelerated and his breathing became slightly erratic, but he could still move and speak. Good. He walked a little closer.

"What are you doing up?" She asked.

Vegeta kept his face expressionless in the darkness as his mind panicked. What was his explanation for being here? He needed an explanation. Fast!

He stood there, frozen in the darkness for a moment too long. Bulma quirked the corner of her mouth.

"Look, thanks for your concern and whatever, but I'm fine." She said, filling in her own reason. She finished the remainder of the glass of brown liquid and stood from the chair.

"You should get some sleep. You look like something the cat dragged in." She began to walk past him towards the door.

Vegeta wasn't going to back down yet. He needed more intel on his condition. Talking to her across the room was one thing, but he needed to know what it was to interact with her up close if he was going to gather enough information to defeat this attraction. He walked over to the workstation and made a display of picking up the photo frame.

"H-Hey! Just what do you think you're-"

"Is this her?" He asked.

Bulma paused. Undecided as to whether to answer his question or continue to tell him off. Finally she exhaled. That royal, superior air was back.

"That's her." She confirmed, perching a hand gracefully on her hip as the bottle dangled from her fingers.

"Marin." She said the name with a slight sneer as if it was beneath her to pronounce.

Vegeta ignored the little flutters running through him and looked at the photo. It was like someone had cloned Bulma and then drained all the fire and intelligence from her eyes.

"She looks weak." He said aloud.

Bulma let out a little half laugh through her nose. "Hnph. She is." She pulled up another stool and sat on it to lean back against the workbench behind her.

"And she's stupid too. All she knows how to do is manipulate guys." She glanced up at the ceiling, leaning back on her elbows.

Vegeta smirked a little, listening to her perfectly describe the woman he used to think she was.

"Young and pretty and weak and stupid." Bulma listed with a wry smile. "The perfect woman."

Vegeta gazed at Bulma. /The perfect woman./ He silently repeated.

"What do guys see in girls like that anyway?" She seemed to be asking the ceiling.

Vegeta realized he'd been quiet too long and he didn't want to be caught staring. "Your species rarely makes sense to me, woman. They seem to thrive on Vegeta-sai, both men and women were expected to become warriors. Women fought along side the men in battle. The weak perished. The strong survived."

His heart skipped a little at the memory of her saying she wanted to fight at his side. On Vegeta-sai, that was how you said 'I love you'. Not that she could possibly know that.

"Warriors huh?" She said, letting her eyes drift from the ceiling to look at the ground. "Sounds like a nice place."

The way she said it seemed almost longing.

Vegeta felt his own longing for his home. The usual grief built in him and he pushed it back down like he always did.

"It was." He said callously, after a slight pause.

Bulma continued to stare gently at the floor. "I guess you must miss it, huh..."

Vegeta let his face default to his usual glare and didn't answer. He was a soldier. His job was to fight, not to feel.

"What was it like?" She asked in a soft, conversational tone but he could see from the slight tilt in the way she held her had that she was really curious.

The pain he told himself he didn't feel intensified as Vegeta's mind started trying to form an image for her. Curse that woman! Anyone else and he could have simply ignored the question, but somehow because **she** had asked he felt obligated to reply.

/What was it like? It was... It was... /

The pain intensified further and his body began to feel the effect. He clenched his fists.

/It was... /

What sort of a question was that?! There were no words that could possibly answer such a question! It was everything! And then in a single second it was...

Perhaps he could give her a little glimpse, but which glimpse? The bright red sky with the glistening warships full of friends and family that he would never see again? Or the children laughing as they jousted and scurried about in the treetops? They weren't laughing anymore, they were all dead. Or perhaps the glistening cities full of saiyan slaves Frieza knew could have defeated him if they'd only had some decent leadership!

He felt the emotions so long suppressed begin to leak out of the little place he locked them up in. He clenched hits fists tight enough to leave little crescent nail marks in his palms as memories of his world, his family, all he had so gloriously failed to protect began flooding through him, bringing an overwhelming rage in their wake.

/All if it! All of them! Wiped from existence with the flick of a finger!/

She looked up at him, oblivious to what she was doing to him as he desperately tried to form an answer for her.

"... It had its moments." He stopped. That sentence had been okay but he could feel he wasn't going to make it through another. He decided to leave it there and hope she didn't press him further.

Bulma looked away with mild disappointment and Vegeta held back a relieved sigh but even though he wasn't trying to form words anymore the path his mind had started down was slippery. Now that he had started it was impossible to stop it.

To look at him you might think he was pondering what he would eat for dinner. But Vegeta was now ripping apart.

/In seconds I went from one of BILLIONS to just ONE! I couldn't even **avenge** them! I sat back and watched Frieza being killed by a **BORED** **CHILD!/**

He looked at Bulma as his knuckles turned white. /A mind like hers could no doubt tell me **ten** **ways** I could have predicted Frieza's movements and saved them. Pathetic! I wasn't even **there**! My own planet! Oh how the universe must laugh. All hail Prince Vegeta! Long may he reign over the bones of his people!/

Bulma looked over at him, meeting his gaze. She stared at him a moment and the silence started to become awkward.

No. This was bad. He needed to say something! But if he talked he knew what his voice would sound like. But how long could he just stand here glaring into her eyes before she realized what was going on? He needed to SAY something!

"You'd have made a fine saiyan." He said. Blurting the first thing that came into his head.

Bulma's eyes widened at the complement. She sat staring back in stunned silence a second before she answered.

"Uhm... Wow, thank you, I guess." She replied.

That had bought him some time. Vegeta broke eye contact and resumed his silent stance. He went back to battling the grief into submission.

/This is pointless! They're gone! Moaning about it won't bring them back! Get control!/

He looked back up to see Bulma looking at his mouth, no doubt letting her calculating eyes see how he was clenching his jaw to keep his lips from quivering. Her eyes snapped back up to his own and a burning red spread over her whole face. She suddenly broke eye contact.

He looked away with a scowl and cursed inwardly. She must have worked it out. Blast that woman! He had been so careful! He was certain he'd kept his face perfectly controlled. Couldn't she just have let this one thing go unnoticed? Did NOTHING get past her? Now this was the **second** time she had seen him all pathetic and weak! He finally forced the majority of the pain back down as embarrassment took its place.

Bulma suddenly jumped from her chair and turned away, no doubt to hide her discomfort at seeing his weakness.

"Uhm, " She hesitated uncharacteristically at a loss for words. "How's the training going?"

Vegeta relaxed a little with gratitude. She was giving him a way to reaffirm his strength, while simultaneously getting them back on a more comfortable subject. Clever as usual.

"I've reached 1,000G's." He replied with his now trademark proud frustration.

"Wow!" She turned back around but her grace was gone. She accidentally knocked something over on the workbench and nervously righted the object.

"Way to push the boundaries!" She continued in an odd, shaky voice. "That's the maximum gravity setting. I can't believe you actually used it!"

"Maximum?" He questioned. He hadn't tried to set it higher yet.

"Yup. That's as high as I could go without the air liquefying." She said, a little too cheerfully. "Up until now I've been adding catalytic agents to keep it gaseous, but beyond 1,000G's nothing stops it from condensing into a puddle. Sorry. That's the ceiling setting if you want to breathe."

Vegeta thought about that a moment. He hadn't even considered the pressure generated by that setting. He had noticed the condensation on the walls and floor, but he'd never imagined it was the air itself condensing under the pressure. If that was the maximum then... What did that mean? He felt his world halting. How was he supposed to become a super saiyan now?

"Hey, don't sweat it." Bulma laughed, reading his thoughts. "I've got you covered." She folded her arms, then unfolded them immediately and put them behind her back like she wasn't sure what to do with them.

A new wave of relief rushed through him. The alcohol must have finally kicked was bright red, awkward and clumsy. She was drunk. In that state she probably hadn't noticed anything at all, and even if she had, she would forget by morning.

Vegeta regained enough energy to feel a tickle of amusement at the sight. He felt the dark emotions ease as she unconsciously lifted his spirits.

/She's cute when she's drunk./ He thought carelessly.

The attraction immediately took advantage of the opening and Vegeta felt his body taking a new barrage of damage. His face went bright red and his heart started to skip again. This was bad. He moved to a strategic position between Bulma and the little lamp. With the light behind him she wouldn't be able to see his face.

That quickly turned out to be a mistake. Yes, she couldn't see his face, that meant she also couldn't see where he was looking. The attraction instantly took advantage. He felt his eyes move downwards to focus on her mouth... then her neck... and then lower to places he didn't recall giving them permission to go. The electric pulses intensified tenfold.

"I'm way ahead of you. We can still push harder!" Bulma smiled and gave him a weak little punch on the arm.

Vegeta bit back a gasp at the contact and what it did to him. His whole body was practically on fire! He had never wanted someone so much as he wanted this little warrior. But his body stayed put. She didn't want him. She wanted the boy. And if Vegeta told her what he felt she would instantly be out of his life. No Bulma. No training equipment. Game over.

"Push harder?" He said with deliberate double meaning as his eyes drifted longingly over her body.

"Yup!" She replied, completely unaware thanks to the angle of light. "I've been working on cuffs for your wrists and ankles to inhibit momentum. And we can go 24/7. I designed the GR to be able to be lived in. If you're up for it?" She grinned to show the last sentence was more of a challenge than a question.


	13. Chapter 13

Vegeta felt the sweat running down his skin to mix with the blood pouring from his ankles and wrists. The momentum cuffs bit angrily into his flesh with each movement. He didn't care. That was what the healing pod was for. These cuffs were fantastic. The first time he'd put them on he could barely move. Now he was fighting a set of battle droids in them. He swung a punch at the droid. The cuff bit deeper into his wrist and the blood began to flow faster. He started to get a little dizzy.

/Excellent!/ He thought excitedly. /Now it's starting to feel like a real fight!/

A chime sounded indicating it was almost time for lunch. The droids responded, automatically moving to their storage area and shutting down. Vegeta tried not to pout. He could fight more after lunch.

He unlocked the cuffs and moved himself into the pod, feeling his injuries begin to fade away. It had only taken him 7 months of training in the GR to reach the maximum gravity setting. A few days later he had moved permanently in. Eating, bathing, even sleeping at 1,000G's. His body had felt like it would cave in on itself for the first few days, but within weeks he'd hardly been able to feel the gravity anymore. The woman had been right on time, appearing on the other side of the airlock extension with his new momentum cuffs and a grin. That had been three months ago.

Besides the new strength he was gaining there were also certain other advantages to being in here. Bulma's effect on him wasn't nearly so great when she simply appeared on the GR screen. He saw her and heard her, but her ki was far away and her scent wasn't filling his mind with ideas. Most of the time he could only see her from the shoulders up. He had almost forgotten what her body looked like...

... almost.

That had been instrumental in defeating the attraction's effect on him. Kakarot. Super saiyan. That was what mattered. Those were the thoughts that most filled his mind during the day. Aside from the occasional 'awkwardness' late at night he felt focused again.

She'd insisted on continuing their traditional shared lunches, even though they now had to be done through the GR screen. Vegeta had fought against it, he wanted distance. He needed to fight this desire for her and seeing her every day was hardly going to help that. Naturally he didn't tell her any of that. He'd argued that he wasn't so weak as to need her to check on him, but she hadn't backed down. Whether he wanted her to or not, she appeared on the screen each day, even programming the droids to shut down as a means of forcing him to communicate with her.

There was a part of him that was irritated by the way she so dismissively ignored his wishes, but a bigger part of him thanked her for it. Not that he'd ever admit it, but the thought occurred that he might have easily gone mad from the silence by now if it weren't for their daily conversations.

Vegeta saw the glow of the communication screen switching on from his position inside the healing pod. He decided to just come out right away rather than wait for the pod to finish. He pulled the mask off and made his way out, dripping wet.

"There you are!" Came her voice from the enormous screen. "I was beginning to think my droids had finally managed to vaporize your absurdly tight butt into a cloud of smoke."

"I won't be so easily killed." He grinned, grabbing a towel to run over his face.

"I'm counting on it. I've worked hard on you and I want some return on my investment."

Vegeta took the towel away sooner than she anticipated and caught her quickly shifting her eyes from his wet body back to his face with slight embarrassment. A little glimmer of flattered pleasure went through him. Had she been looking? He fought back a little smile and deliberately stretched his arms, causing his muscles to flex as he turned his back to her and walked towards the airlock extension.

"Hey, what's up with your arms?" She said from behind him. "They're all scuffed up... wait, are they bleeding?"

The little smile was quickly replace by a dark scowl. She hadn't been looking after all, she was just analysing him like one of her machines. "My arms are fine, woman." He said a little too grouchily.

"Don't try to brush me off you big meat head. Is that from the cuffs?" She sounded worried as she furrowed her brow and leaned in closer to peer through the screen.

Vegeta pulled open the airlock extension and brought the cargo container of food inside silently. He didn't like her pity.

"It IS, isn't it!?" He heard her say from behind him. "Vegeta how long have they been doing that to you?"

"My arms are not your concern, woman. Stop your pestering." He felt foolish for allowing his desire to see her drive him out of the pod early. Why couldn't he have just let the thing finish? Now she was looking at him like he was weak again.

"Well the cuffs ARE my concern! You just got out of the pod! What did those cuts look like BEFORE you got in there?" She looked over the room to see the spatters of red on the walls and floor. "Is that blood? Vegeta! Why can't you TELL me things like this? There's a difference between tough and stupid you know."

"Enough woman! The injury is minor. It does not impede my abilities."

"That's not the point you idiot. Not everything is about you!" She glared at him.

Vegeta looked up at her. That had gotten his attention.

Bulma folded her arms with an annoyed look on her face. "I know you can handle it. Of course you can. Your a saiyan. You'd keep fighting with your head missing if you could. But it's not going to be long before those cuffs can't challenge you anymore. My design was supposed to perfectly mimic and move with the contour of your wrists and ankles. If there's a flaw in the design I need to know about it before I make the next generation."

Vegeta glared at her. He was relieved that she didn't think he was weak, but he was also irritated that she was right. He should have told her about the cuts, the strategist in him had always known it. But he hadn't wanted to look weak in front of her. He felt foolish for letting his attraction to her override his judgement.

Bulma took his silence as his apology. "Never mind. Just tell me this stuff from now on, Ok?"

Vegeta remained quiet,

"Okaay?" She dragged out the word, not letting him get out of responding.

Vegeta scowled. "Fine! Wretched woman."

Bulma smiled victoriously. "That's better." She paused a moment in thought, letting him begin to unpack the container of food. "I need to see the damage up close." She finally said. "Sorry, but I'll have to come inside. Hey, power down the generator for me ok? I'm on my way.

The screen shut off and Vegeta began to panic. /She's coming in?/

What did she mean "up close"? How close was that?! She'd probably want to touch him, ohh gods what if she planned to touch him?! He looked over at the panel, tempted to just refuse to turn it off, but she could easily shut it down from the outside. His heart raced. He could sense her ki getting closer like an unstoppable force. He concentrated on slow and steady breathing as he went to power down the generator.

/This 'attraction' opponent was supposed to have been defeated!/ He thought with annoyance. He tried to grab an image of Kakarot and hold it in his mind. It slipped away the first few times but eventually it stuck. The cold hatred he felt for the other saiyan began to counter the heat he felt for her. /Better. Not ideal, but better./ He thought.

His body jolted as she entered. The image of Kakarot disappeared. Just when he needed him! One more reason to hate him! He stayed facing the opposite wall, not looking at her.

"Hey!" She said cheerfully as she walked closer to him. "Wow it feels really weird seeing you in person after all this time. It's like seeing an actor off of the television."

She walked around in front of him. Vegeta had folded his arms and closed his eyes. Hoping she would take the pose as one of annoyance.

"Oh, come on. What's with that childish pose?" She laughed. "A few minutes without the gravity up isn't going to make that big of a difference. Now come on. Let's see your arms."

She reached to take his arm. He moved to extend it for her before she could make contact.

A piercing shriek sounded as she flew across the room.

He hadn't made contact. The mere air force of his movement after removing the cuffs and dropping to 1G was all it had taken.

She landed, unconscious, broken and bleeding against the opposite wall of the GR.


	14. Chapter 14

"BULMA!" Vegeta howled her name and flew to where she lay. "Bulma! ... Bulma!" He repeated her name over and over but she didn't respond. "Bulma! Wake up woman! I demand you wake up this instant!" There was bloody fluid pouring from her ears and a pool of blood was forming underneath her. Bones stuck out from compound fractures throughout her body.

She was dying.

Vegeta kneeled over her. Bulma was dying and he had killed her!

He suddenly looked up. The healing pod! He gathered her broken form with quivering hands and raced her over to it.

...7:11.

...7:10.

...7:09.

Vegeta's heart broke as he realized the pod was still undergoing it's 30 minute maintenance sequence. He collapsed softly to the floor in front of it, holding her in his lap. His chest felt warm and slippery with the blood oozing out of her.

...2:25

...2:24

...2:23

She stopped breathing, her one working lung had filled with blood. "No no NO! You will not die. Not without my permission! You will obey me at least once in your life you insolent woman!" He held her gently and watched the life leaving her.

...0:30

...0:29

...0:28

Her weakened heart began to flutter erratically.

He cradled her closer and whispered gently into her hair. "Bulma ... fight... you're a fighter so... fight..."

...0:02

...0:01

...0:00

Vegeta kicked the orange button. The door shot open and he flew into the pod together with her. He grabbed the mask and shoved it into her mouth. The pod began to kick in and he shot out again. He wanted every single healing ray to go into her.

He stared through as the door closed behind him. He could barely make her out. Her body's silhouette was snapping and twisting back into something resembling the beautiful woman he loved but there was blood darkening the water and his eyes were all blurry for some reason. The door closed and he couldn't see her any more. He desperately searched for her ki. Anything. Any little glimmer of ki. Anything at all...

Fifteen minutes later the pod began to power down. "Healing sequence complete" it said in the emotionless automated voice.

It didn't matter.

She was dead.


	15. Chapter 15

Vegeta wiped a bloody hand across his tear stained face. He picked himself up slowly from the floor and pressed the orange button so that he could gather up her corpse. The door didn't open.

"Pod occupied." The voice said. "Resuscitation sequence in progress."

Vegeta's eyes widened. "Resuscitation?" He watched with new desperate hope.

He couldn't see what the machine did but an agonizingly long moment later a tiny spark of ki came from within her body. It was so small. Less than that of a cocooned butterfly. But it was there. Vegeta placed a hand against the door and stared at the little spark, watching it. His gut wrenched as it faded a little at first, but then the machine hit her with another jolt of something and the spark began to grow and catch on to her body, spreading through her. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding as he watched her body ignite brightly with ki.

She was alive!

Vegeta collapsed, weak with joy.

She opened the door and stepped out. "Whuh? Vegeta?"

He smiled the first real smile of his life.

"Vegeta?" Bulma looked at him, confused. "You're going to have to fill me in."

"You refused to obey me as usual." He said, relief on his face. "I ordered you to live. You died. Can you never simply do as you're told, woman?" He stood and touched her face gently. She was alive.

Bulma looked at him, still disoriented. "I died?"

Vegeta's hand quickly pulled from her face as he remembered how she'd gotten hurt in the first place. "The pod healed and resuscitated your body." He said.

"Really?" She looked excitedly at the pod. "Wow! I sure am good. Take that Shenlon! This girl resurrects herself!"

Vegeta suddenly realized he had completely forgotten about the dragon balls. Of course. She had never been in any danger.

"Hey, I wonder if he'll resurrect me again since I've died once now...?" She began to think out loud. "I'll have to ask Kami."

She spun around. "Oh, right! Show me your arms Mister! No killing me to get out of it this time."

She had recovered and stared at him with her usual fearless expression, but Vegeta's expression was far from the same.

/I killed her! I didn't even touch her!/

"Wow your a mess! Is that all mine?" She said referring to the blood covering Vegeta's form, "Sorry 'bout that." She walked over to grab a towel.

"Here." She said holding it out to him.

Vegeta pulled away. "Leave." He said.

Bulma pulled the towel back slightly. "Oh, you want me to give you the room while you have a shower?"

Vegeta stood perfectly still. "Leave now, woman."

"Fine, fine. Gosh you're so bashful! Goku always just stripped right off while was standing there!" She laughed as she made her way to the door. "I'll be back in about 10 minutes. I don't want to give you enough time to get rid of the evidence and use the pod on yourself."

She shut the door. "Later!"

Vegeta relaxed. He had been tensed from head to toe, desperately trying not to move last he send her flying again. it wasn't safe for her to be near him. He knew that now. He finally understood. Bulma's heart might be saiyan but her body was definitely human. She was fragile. Weak.

He looked at the shower, it hadn't been a bad idea. A few minutes later he was in his uniform. He opened the door. He needed to leave here. She wouldn't be safe while he was here. A destructive thing like him... it would only be a matter of time before he hurt her again.

"Wow, that was quick." Bulma was standing in the doorway, blocking his exit.

He stopped dead.

"Oi! What's with that outfit? I can't even see your arms in that." She was standing, arms folded, right in his way.

Vegeta stood, frozen perfectly still. He needed her to move, he needed to get past and leave her, but if he touched her he might hurt her.

Bulma moved towards him and he stepped back, keeping a safe distance between them.

"Clothes off, Mister!" She stepped forwards, then laughed, "Wow, never thought I'd get to say THAT to you!"

Vegeta kept stepping back. If he could draw her far enough inside he could get through behind her.

Bulma stopped right in the the doorway, sealing him in. She spread her feet slightly apart and stood with her hands on her hips.

Vegeta looked her over. She was taking up the maximum possible area of the doorway. She was... was she doing it on purpose?

Bulma saw him figure her out. "Look, you're not getting out of here so you might as well just give up now." She finally said.

"Stand aside, woman." He growled, trying to sound threatening.

"Nope. Not gonna happen." She replied as she stretched one arm out to lean against the doorway. "Listen Vegeta you're blowing this way out of proportion. I'm perfectly fine. I'm better than fine, I'm me!"

Vegeta kept his eyes focused on the area around her body, watching for an opening.

"Vegeta are you even listening?" She said with annoyance. "I said I'm fine. I just died, that's all. It happens more than you'd think around here."

Vegeta looked at her. All he could see was her pale, lifeless face. He could still feel her broken body against his skin. The slippery warm drops of red blood trickling over cold limbs. He had done that and he would never do it again.

Bulma caught the guilt in his eyes. "Vegeta quit looking at me like that. It wasn't your fault. This was all on me. I should have waited and let you readjust before I came in. I wasn't thinking and I paid for my own mistake. You put me in the pod. You saved me. You're not to blame for this."

"Let me pass!" He yelled.

"No." She replied. "I'll stand right here forever if I have to. I need you."

Vegeta's heart let out a little ache. "This isn't the time to use such a dirty tactic against me." He said, his face contorting in anger and pain.

"It's the only tactic I've got!" She said. "I need you to become a super saiyan and protect us. If I have to use dirty tactics to keep you here then that's what I'll do. You can't get out of this room without touching me."

His heart broke a little again. /So that's what she meant.../

"Vegeta, this wasn't your fault. It won't happen again. Stop freaking out and calm down. When Goku got back from 10G's on King Kai's he broke everything in sight. He even sent Chi Chi through a wall! You walked in and out of this GR, jumping to hundreds of times gravity and back again for seven months and you never even broke a cup! You're in control of your strength. It's one of the things that makes you better than him. Don't throw that away."

Vegeta finally looked her in the eyes as his heart began to skip. 'Better than him'? She thought he was better than Kakarot?

Bulma saw him calming down. "I'm fine. I'm healthy. You saved me. Let's drop it." The comforting words came in a sharp, matter of fact tone. As if she was ordering him to see her point of view.

Vegeta loosened a little.

"Are we good?" She asked, folding her arms.

Vegeta straightened his body out of the 'ready to run' pose he'd been in to stand naturally again. It was all the response she needed.

She smiled and sighed in relief. "Good." She walked over, "Now, strip. Let's look at those arms."

Vegeta tried to push the heat rising in him back down as he pulled off the top part of his uniform. She instantly had her hands on him and suddenly the trauma of recent events disappeared. He endured silently as the sweet torture of her light touch sent electric shivers through his form.

She leaned in closer and her breath began puffing against him while her hair fell forwards to softly caress his skin. He bit back a gasp. He knew she liked his control but this level of control was unbearable!

Why had he put on his blasted uniform?!

Why had they designed his blasted uniform so blasted **tight?!**

Three months of nights alone in the GR battling 'the attraction'. Exactly which 'Bulma examines me' dream did this most resemble?

/None of them! Warriors don't have those sorts of filthy dreams!/

Even so, he had a feeling he wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight. He fixed his eyes on the GR ceiling and recited the saiyan alphabet backwards silently as he waited for her to finish.

He could swear she was doing this to him on purpose...

After an eternity she finally placed the cuffs back on him and had him run through a slow kata for her, then examined the cuffs.

"Ok, I think I see the problem. I'll need to borrow these for a little while. Can I trust you to be here when I get back?"

Vegeta walked over and sat down to his lunch in a wordless affirmative.

"Ok. See you in a bit!" She left, closing the GR door behind her.


	16. Chapter 16

Vegeta was mad. He punched the little droid gracelessly, sending it flying into the wall. The others quickly looped around and fired into him, putting him on the defensive. He knew his movements lacked the needed strategic professionalism required to defeat them, but he didn't care. Today it wasn't about defeating then. Today he just wanted to hit something. Because today was different to every other day.

Today marked one year since he'd returned to Earth.

A YEAR! He punched one of the other two droids as the first one recovered and came at him.

A YEAR of training, pushing, living for nothing else. A year of living here with every advantage, every piece of training equipment... NOTHING! WHY?!

He kicked another droid with a rage fueled, sloppy kick that it easily recovered from. One of them managed to land a direct hit on his shoulder and he threw his own blast back at it angrily.

What was WRONG?! What was he MISSING?!

The droids began to target his injured shoulder and pain began to coarse through him.

WHY?! He demanded to know! WHY?!

The droids powered down and returned to their storage area. He glared at them, silently demanding that they finish the fight. A year. A YEAR! **A YEAR!**

He felt his body getting lighter. /What now?!/ He listened to sense Bulma's ki outside the door. /BLASTED WOMAN! I DO NOT WISH TO SEE YOU TODAY!/

He punched the wall with his good arm, leaving a dent in it.

He could feel the gravity lessening further. She was coming in. He scowled and began to do push ups against the floor to get accustomed to the low gravity before she entered. A few minutes later she appeared with a large cake. "Happy anniversary!" She called cheerfully as she entered.

"Leave now woman!" He said between gritted teeth from his position on the floor.

"Hey, how about a little gratitude huh? I got up early for this! It's not even 10 o'clock yet!" She walked across the room. "Chef made a cake for us!" She stopped at the control panel and tapped a key. A few panels from the GR walls lowered 90 degrees, becoming a legless table and chairs for two. She set the cake down on the table.

"I said get out! NOW!" He jumped up with clenched fists and shouted at her from across the room.

"Boy, someone needs a time out. Looks like I'm just in time. Come eat some cake your highness, you sound like you could use the sugar." She sliced a giant slice and put it on a plate for him.

"I am in no mood to deal with your absurd traditions. Leave me be!" He stood with folded arms.

"Oh? Leave you be, huh? So you can keep destroying the GR? I don't think so Mister. I'm staying right here until you finish this cake." She served herself a more 'human sized' piece and placed it on her own plate.

Vegeta gathered a ball of ki to 'finish' her cake, but she saw it coming and dashed in front of the table using herself as a human shield. "Hey! Chef worked HARD on this thing!" She yelled.

She stomped over to him and he felt her proximity cutting into his resolve as his body responded to her. "Stop being such a baby and sit down." She grabbed her hands around his elbow and tugged his traitorously obedient form towards the table even as his mind protested.

"You need to relax!" She said. "Look I know you're frustrated, believe me, so am I, but we've got plenty of time left. There's still two more years!"

He allowed her to push him into the chair.

She leaned in to his ear, "Let's just ... can keep training again tomorrow."

Vegeta wasn't sure what she'd said in that middle bit, all he could think of was her scent in his nose, her hands toying at his neck, her hot breath puffing against his earlobe and the need to stay in control.

She moved to sit opposite him and picked up a spoon. "Eat!" She ordered, pointing at his plate with her spoon.

Vegeta grabbed up the cake in large spoonfuls and finished the slice in under a second. He stood up.

"Sit!" She said. "We're just getting started."

Vegeta ignored her and went back to the floor to continue his push ups, not that he could really feel anything at this gravity, but that had been too close, before. He'd felt his face beginning to turn red. He needed to get away from her fast before everything was given away.

She stood and walked over to him, standing and staring down at him doing the pointless push ups with her hands on her hips. "Vegeta! Stop training! If you still had a tail you'd be chasing it, this is stupid. You need to take a break! Clear your head. Let's just get out of this room and go somewhere."

Why couldn't she just leave him alone.

"I'm fine, woman. I'm not so weak that I need to be babysat by you!" He glared at the floor.

Bulma walked over to the table and leaned against it with folded arms. She watched him moving up and down, deciding what to do with him. "I'm not leaving." She said finally. "And if you don't do something with me today I'm just going to stay here until you do. I'll sleep here if I have to."

That got his attention. He looked up at her over his shoulder. 'Sleep here'?

The GR only had one bed... Although it was pretty big...

His body started to heat again. No! He was already struggling to keep it in as it was! There was absolutely **no** **way** he could let her sleep in the GR.

He stood and walked over in annoyance with folded arms. Bulma glared squarely at him, mirroring his pose.

"Very well, woman. Waste time for your pathetic tradition." He said.

She smiled victoriously. "That's the spirit! Come on, it'll be fun. It's a great day out. Want to go to the beach?"

"A-ABSOLUTELY NOT!" He shouted. No no no. Bulma in a bikini. That was an definite no.

"Ok, What about shopping?" She asked, slightly confused by his outburst against the beach.

Vegeta folded his arms and continued to glare at her.

"Shopping it is!" She said. "Come on." She reached to take his elbow again and he pulled away, not wanting the contact.

Bulma noticed. "Vegeta, will you quit freaking out about touching me! It's been weeks already. You're not going to hurt me." She refolded her arms.

He stared at her. He didn't like this conversation. "I don't 'freak out', woman." He said, hoping she would drop it. She didn't.

She met his eyes challengingly. "Fine, prove it. Pick me up."

Vegeta's eyes widened. No way. The was no way he was picking her up. Among other things she was hardly wearing anything! He'd have to wrap his arms around her bare skin, there was no way he could do that. Not without his face turning red and giving his feelings away.

"Pick me up Vegeta. You need to get over this. I won't have you looking at me like I'm some sort of glass figurine." Bulma took a step towards him and he took a step back.

"Oh for crying out loud!" She said in exasperation. "Vegeta! What am I going to have to do to prove it to you?"

Vegeta stood motionless. Part of him wanted to yell that wasn't the reason, but if he did that then the next phrase out if her mouth would be to demand what was.

She stood there, staring at him. She was calculating. Vegeta watched as her intelligent eyes ran through possibilities on how to prove it to him for what felt like an eternity.

Suddenly her eyes sparked as a thought occurred to her. A little blush dusted at her cheeks and she slowly ran her eyes down Vegeta's body. Vegeta froze. Bulma had never looked at him like THAT before.

She was still calculating...

What exactly was she thinking of doing?!


	17. Chapter 17 (M)

**Ok guys, remember, this is a romantic COMEDY! It's meant to be BOTH romantic and funny. Hope I've achieved the right balance here... lemon warning btw.**

* * *

Bulma kept her eyes on his stomach a while. "Hey..." She began, then let the thought hang in the air a moment.

Vegeta's breath caught in his throat. Her voice was liquid silk.

"How long since you've had a real opponent?" Her eyes kept drifting playfully over his body, eventually tracing a path back up to meet his uncertain gaze.

"... what?" He finally replied.

He didn't move. He'd misinterpreted her advances before. He remembered when she'd humiliated him by 'hitting at' him in the GR when he first moved back to earth. She was probably just doing the same thing again.

She took a step towards him. She moved like a predator. "A real opponent. Not a machine. An opponent with flesh... breath... sweat. A **real **opponent."

Vegeta's mind was moving simultaneously at light speed and not at all. "I... uh... Frieza." He heard his voice give a traitorous quiver. This was certainly nothing like the last time had been! What was she up to?!

"On Namek?" She said more as a statement than a question. "Really? Almost two years." She stalked around behind him to see him from the back, assessing him with those eyes that drifted wherever they pleased. She used her slight height advantage to whisper in his ear on her way past. "Must be dull for you here."

She moved closer as she came around to his front again. Her eyes locked in on his, half lidded and far too close. "Feel like a new challenge?" She said in her silky, bedroom voice. Vegeta could feel her breath puff against his lips.

Vegeta stood perfectly still. "What?"

"I'm challenging you to a match." She repeated, letting her eyes drift down to his mouth and back up to his eyes. "Do you accept?"

"D-Don't be ridiculous, woman. There's no way you could challenge me." Vegeta's skin felt hot and exposed.

Bulma let her eyes drift back to his mouth. "There are three elements to a worthy opponent, saiyan." She stepped back and turned to the cake, playfully grabbing a lump of icing on her finger.

"Strength. " She said as she examined the dollop.

"Stamina." She continued as she moved back towards him.

"And technique." She finished. She gazed back at his mouth.

"What I lack in the former I more than make up for in the latter." She put the icing clad finger into her mouth.

"For example-" and instantly her lips were over his. Her tongue moved with expert ease , pushing into his mouth and dominating the space. The taste of sweet icing began to fill his mouth. One of her hands grasped the back of his neck and gradually worked into his hair while the other ran down to trace his buttock and tease gently between his rear upper thigh with clever fingers. His hips jolted towards her at the overwhelming sensation and he moaned into her mouth. His hands hovered inches from her skin, afraid to make contact.

She pulled away. "Lame!" She said and folded her arms at him with a suddenly passionless expression.

She walked away. "Ah what sort of kiss was that? I haven't been kissed like that since I was in middle school. Aww man I was all excited for a decent opponent but you haven't even mastered such a basic technique!"

Vegeta's eyes sparked at the insult /How dare she...!/

"If you can't even handle the basics there's no point in challenging me further. I can already tell you couldn't keep up with me. You'd just be an easy victory. Never mind." She walked towards the door.

Vegeta's blood boiled at the implication that he was a boring opponent. He reached out and grabbed her wrist. "Don't underestimate me woman!" He said between gritted teeth. "You caught me off guard, that's all!"

She smiled a challenging smile. "Is that so?"

Vegeta stared fire at her.

"Very well." She said in her casually superior voice. "Take a free shot. I'll let you show me one of your moves. But it better be good, saiyan. I'm not going to hang around and face an opponent who bores me."

"I can assure you I am perfectly capable of matching you." Vegeta said through his battle face while inwardly he desperately tried to think of a move that would impress her. He'd just realized with panic that he'd never done this without his tail before! All his best moves... they all... How the heck was he supposed to come up with a whole new book of tail-less moves on short notice?!

He stalled for time, walking the two of them to the panel and sitting back against it. He tugged her closer and she obligingly moved her hips between his legs and stared at him in challenging expectation.

Vegeta slowly thought of something. /That one might still work without a tail.../

He moved his hands gently to rest one on each of her hips. She looked down at them with mild curiosity. He began to pulse ki between his hands, sending warm vibrations through her pelvis.

"Mmnhh" She let out a little pleased noise and her eyes unfocused. Vegeta grinned and intensified the effect.

"AAaaigh!" She flung her arms around his neck to catch her weight as her knees gave way from pleasure. He easily held her up by her hips as her feet curled off of the ground. He stopped the pulsing vibrations and let her catch her breath.

"Well?" He asked through a cocky smirk.

/Still got it./

"Im... impressive." She said, still panting a little. She slowly got her legs under her again and leaned in to him, reaching a hand behind him. She activated the bed. Vegeta looked over at it with a little flash of panic.

"Very well, we'll see what else you've got." She walked towards the bed.

Vegeta wanted her. Oh, how he wanted her but ... but what if he lost control? Even if it was for less than a second. One single false movement could break her apart.

He let her tug him by his hand towards the bed hesitantly.

Bulma turned just before reaching the bed and pulled him in front of her. She planted another hot kiss on his mouth and he felt his body buckling as she slid her hands into his shorts, easily tugging them off and taking a second to let her clever fingers explore a little while she was there. He felt her smile against his mouth as a shudder ran through him.

He didn't dare touch her lest his hands spasm and...

Eventually she drew her hand up to push gently against his stomach, sending his obedient form backwards to sit on the bed. He looked up at her as she slowly stripped, achingly exquisit movements that piece by peice revealed the soft, endless curves that had woken him up in cold sweats for months on end. She kept twisting her body this way and that to give him the best angles as the little pieces of fabric slipped away. Vegeta's body burned with desire as his nails dug into the mattress. He had never imagined the simple act of disrobing could be like this! He'd always been with saiyan women. Saiyans didn't dawdle. Clothes were usually torn off in under a second if you bothered to remove them at all. But this slow, sweet torture was so... How had his people never come up with such a concept?! He watched her agonizingly perfect movements. It was like each motion dragged his body to new heights of burning desire. Eventually she made it down to the little lacy nothings underneath. She smirked, moving back between his legs so that he could feel the heat radiating off of her skin into his. His fingers gripped tighter into the mattress as his body pulsed. The height of the bed left his face right at the level of her chest. . The carefully moulded undergarment was now all that sat between him and... those. She smirked knowingly and reached up to flick one of the thin straps of fabric off of her shoulder, then the other strap. His body rose to new heights of electric anticipation as he obediently waited.

Bulma paused, placing a hand on each of his shoulders. "Care to do the honours?" She asked.

His eyes flicked desperately about the little pieces of fabric and lace that still denied him access to her phenomenal bust. /Honours?/ He wondered. He couldn't really hold a thought. Her breasts were... right there... inches from him. And they were even more incredible at this proximity.

Vegeta's body pulsed with intense desire and DEMANDED she finish removing the last sections of fabric right now!

"Come on." She prompted. "I thought you said you had moves. Bra removal is a simple technique. Earth boys all master it pretty early. Impress me already."

Vegeta froze. He looked up at her expectant expression. Suddenly his universe crashed to a halt, the living fantasy rapidly turned into a worst nightmare situation. He looked at her, inches from his body, nearly naked, waiting patiently for him to remove the bra and his mind desperately repeated one question.

/What's a bra?!/

She waited a few seconds, running a finger to toy along his earlobe as a means of keeping herself amused.

Vegeta began to panic. What's a bra? What the heck is a bra?! How could he remove it if he didn't know what it was?! He couldn't very well ask her what a 'bra' was at this point! She'd already threatened to leave if she decided he didn't know what he was doing. But he DIDN'T know what he was doing! He'd never BEEN with a human before! What was a bra?! Was it even in the room? Was he supposed to have brought one? This 'bra removal' technique seemed like it was a basic and vital skill for all males before they could proceed with a human female. What would she do if he did it wrong?!

Bulma eventually grew bored of waiting. "Forget it. I'll do it myself. But this is your last freebie Mister!"

Vegeta watched her flip her arms awkwardly up behind her back to work on the clasp of the lacy structure around her chest.

/It must be that! That thing around her chest! I just have to remove that?!/ He quickly dashed his hand up to the weak point of the garment at the center of her chest and tore it, causing the whole item to fall away at the front.

Bulma let out a startled noise and looked down at her suddenly exposed chest. "Hey!" She instinctively threw her arms up over herself.

/Curses! I did it wrong!/ He looked at her irritated face. /Ohh please, please, please don't leave now.../

"I removed it." He defended lamely, trying to keep calm.

Bulma let out one last irritated noise but didn't leave. "You know I really liked that bra."

Vegeta fought back a grateful sigh of relief.

She rearranged her arms to fold them just under her bust, causing the soft volumes to press together in a perfect display. Vegeta's fingers pierced the mattress and his mind ceased to function for several seconds. There were no thoughts worthy of this. His imagination had made many, many attempts, but nothing came close. The woman was perfection embodied! If anything her clothes had been making them look smaller!

"..." The sound of her voice was still playing in the background somewhere.

Eventually Vegeta pulled his eyes from the exquisite sight to look up at her face. Her lips were moving. /Is she talking?/

She reached out and took his arms, jolting him from his trance.

Bulma calmly ran her hands down to his wrists, then pressed his palms against her waist, slowly dragging them along the impossibly soft flesh down to her underwear. She slipped his hands along, under the flimsy triangular lacework and down her thighs tugging the underwear with them. Once the last , vital barrier of fabric fell to the floor she slid his hands back up her now completely exposed body. He hadn't imagined it was possible to pulse hotter than he had when she stripped but now he knew it was just the beginning. He let her slowly guide his hands to trace back along the curved perfection of her firm behind, the gentle dip of her soft waist, and up until his thumbs rested just under her breasts.

"See?" She said as if making a point. "No problem. You can even grip harder if you like. I don't mind a few bruises if I have fun getting them."

She draped her arms over his shoulders.

Vegeta's hands lifted away a little. /Bruises?/

He felt the delicate skin under his hands, finally recalling the gap between their strengths. He looked at his fingers that easily crushed stone into dust resting dangerously against her little ribs. He quickly pulled his hands away.

Bulma flinched and glared after his hands, then back at his face.

The fantasy reverted to a nightmare again as he looked at her. Gloriously naked. Arms draoed about his neck. Hips between his legs. Waiting for him to throw her on the bed and take her. And he couldn't touch her!

/# $&!/

The woman had built his power so high so fast he'd had no time to adjust. He had no idea how strong he was anymore! And even if he managed to touch her, what then?! Vegeta was saiyan. Saiyans were born warriors. Saiyan intimacy was consequently... aggressive ... athletic... and that was putting it mildly! Biting, scratching, grapple holds, extreme speed and force... Both participants usually walked away with several bruises and a few new scars. Bulma's little body... she'd never withstand it! Did he even HAVE that much control? Even if he might... How could he risk this?! He could kill her! Again!

/%$ #!/

Bulma got impatient. She looked down at him in irritation. "Come at me, saiyan. Are you surrendering already?"

Vegeta's hands wouldn't move! He willed them to move but they refused. She had his body pulsing hotter than it ever had his entire life! If he tried something his instincts would instantly take over. He'd absolutely kill her!

Bulma began to get angry. She folded her arms. "Gosh if you were just gonna chicken out you might have said something before you broke my favourite bra!"

She bent down to gather her things. "Forget it. I'm bored. I'm outta here."

/No!/ His heart screamed. /Wait!/

"You're weak!" He finally blurted in a desperate explanation.

Bulma paused and turned to face him. Her eyes were full of fiery rage. "What?!"

"I can't... get excited. You're weak. I can't touch you like this. "

If he could just get a few seconds to calm down...

Bulma's rage intensified. "That's it!" She tossed the clothes back to the floor. "I am NOT weak! Get ready saiyan because here it comes!"

/What?/ Vegeta watched a furious, naked Bulma storm over onto his lap. She swung one leg either side of his hips, straddling him. Her hands moved quickly. One went behind his head to grab his hair, stabilising his head while she kissed him, the other dashed behind his back and gripped the remnants of his severed tail, digging her nails in and wrenching it.

"Aah!" Vegeta cried out against her mouth. He knew she had intended to cause pain but her hands were so delicate she had only caused intense pleasure against the sensitive tissue. Bulma took advantage of his momentary open lips to push her tongue inside. She continued to work her clever tongue expertly in his mouth. She pulled her hand from his tail around to the front to check his readiness.

"Mmnngh! Hnnf!" Vegeta moaned and shuddered as she worked her fingers into pulsing, delicate flesh until she was satisfied, then she pulled her hand away and repositioned her body to take him in.

"AAAugh!" Vegeta yelled out in ecstasy as he entered her. His hands hovered in the air. She was actually taking him by force! Curses this was worse! The excitement of her performing such a feat of dominance using nothing but that tiny little body was overwhelming!

She pulled back, releasing his mouth so he could breathe, and glared into his eyes, gripping his hair to keep him focused on her. "Still think I'm weak?"

Vegeta stared back at her. /All I had to do was call her a weakling and she wraps her legs around me?!/

"Weakling." He taunted excitedly.

Her eyes flamed with proud rage that dragged Vegeta's saiyan body to new heights. She wrenched again at his tail, making him cry out louder as she started to nip at his neck. She began to gently rock against him.

"Aa-Nng!" His hands gripped the bed and tore gaping holes in the mattress. /This is happening! This is actually happening!/

He continued to cry out in breathless exclamations of intense pleasure as she took him.

"Stop complaining!" She panted as she continued to pulse against him.

/Complaining?!/ His mind exclaimed. Even his most vivid, hot, wet fantasies had never approached this! This was the single most incredible moment of his LIFE!

Her movements began to slow.

/No! Don't stop-don't stop-don't stop!/ His hands hovered over her, desperate to hold her but with every motion against him she sent waves of ecstasy through his form that he didn't know if he could control.

"W... Weak!" He tried again to rouse her into action. "Weak ... human..."

She gripped his hair tighter and kissed him again.

/YES!/

"Mmphn!" He excitedly opened his mouth for her but she pulled back.

She moved back to lick and kiss at his earlobe.

Ohh he would happily call her a weakling forever if she just kept doing that to his ear.

Her movements stopped. /No!/ He quickly tried to bring her back.

"Are you finished already, weakling?" He challenged.

She pulled back and looked into his eyes a while, then away.

"Sorry. I shouldn't have... I knew what you were. I should have trusted my first instincts."

/First instincts?/ Vegeta quickly translated...

He instantly remembered her words before they started. 'Opponent who bores me' 'Easy victory' 'Haven't mastered the basics'...

/No!/ Vegeta's mind WILLED his hands to move. She was going to leave if he didn't do something to impress her RIGHT NOW!

She began to pull off of him.

At the terrifying prospect of her departure Vegeta's hands FINALLY kicked in. They shot over to hold her hips agaist him.

Bulma looked down in shock.

"There! I touched you!" He glared at her.

"Oh congratulations!" She yelled angrily. "That must have been SO difficult for you!"

/As a matter of fact it WAS!/ Vegeta thought.

"Blasted woman!" He shot back. "Do you know how easily I could kill you?!"

"So kill me then!" She replied with more annoyance than anything else.

Vegeta stared in astonished silence.

"What?!" She challenged. "You've gone to verse opponents you knew would probably kill you. What's the big deal?! It's not like I've never died before! The pod's right there and if that isn't enough the radar's in the lab. Tell Shenlon I said hi!"

Vegeta looked at her fearlessly glaring at him. She was serious!

Ohh he hadn't imagined it was possible to want her more but that woman had just stepped up to the next level of perfection. Fearless blue eyes, glorious soft skin and the heart of a true warrior. She had started this knowing full well there was a possibility she wouldn't survive.

His heart began to race. This woman... She was just such a living fantasy! He needed her. He **needed** her! She was brave. She was willing to risk it. And in that vital knowledge, so was he. He repositioned his hands to hold her against him gently as he lifted up and flew them to a better position on the bed. He settled her under him with utmost care.

"Huh?" Bulma looked up at him.

"I will try not to kill you." He said, and lowered his lips to press against hers. "But if I do, I give my word I will revive you." He kissed her again.

"Vegeta? " Bulma looked confused.

He started to move.

Bulma gasped and her ki flared brightly.

Vegeta paused. "Are you hurt?"

Bulma shook her head. "N-No." She looked up at him. "That's um... nice..."

/Nice?!/ Vegeta's pride reared up again. He had a feeling he could do better than just 'Nice'!

He adjusted his angle of approach, watching her ki carefully until he found the position and speed that seemed to raise it highest.

He still kept his hands on the sheets, his fingers digging little holes in the fabric as he cautiously maintained his delicate rhythm. She started to move to meet him. He listened as she began making little noises that left everything in his repeated fantasies in the dust. That was more like it! He smirked. Her hands lifted from the sheets and began to grasp at his body, pushing, scratching and running over his form. He shuddered against her as the pleasure began to really hit him. His lips began to excitedly explore her skin while his body chorused with simultaneous ecstasy at the glorious sensation of having her and desperation to move with the speed and force his saiyan form was capable of. He had never concentrated so hard on anything in his life. It was exhausting! But she was worth it. Oh kami was she ever worth it!

She arched against him and her hands moved to his back, finding the injured shoulder. She hesitated a second as if making her mind up before she suddenly dug her nails in hard. A sudden burst of pain added to the already intense pleasure and broke his concentration. He gasped and bucked against her.

Bulma yelped as her body seized up suddenly.

Vegeta instantly pulled out of her in a panic. She writhed a second, her face scrunched in hurt. He looked her over desperately. He was sure he'd caught himself before the full impact but maybe he hadn't.

/Oh Kami a move like that could easily snap her spine, dislocate her hip, fracture her pelvis... / The terrifying list ran through his head.

"Are you injured?" He asked in a monotone voice, dreading the answer as his eyes searched for where hehe'd hurt her.

"" What?" She said back, panting. "No. No no. I just... uhm... I ... uhh... I'm fine."

He looked down, her form. Blasted woman probably didn't want to admit he'd hurt her. Thankfully, Vegeta had spent a lifetime either inflicting or receiving every injury imaginable. He began checking her over with experienced precision. She turned bright red and began protesting, but Vegeta wasn't interested.

"Silence, woman. I need to concentrate."

He began running gentle fingers delicately along her spinal chord. Okay. Lifting and twisting each leg to assess range of motion. Fine. He hesitated, looking up at her a second in a brief apologetic gesture, then finally ran his hand up slowly slowly to carefully check between her legs.

Bulma blushed deeper and tried to pull away but he held her knee with his other hand to keep her still until the exam was complete. She tried to shut her legs, tried to push his hand away, but that only told him he was looking in the right place. He continued to look harder running his fingers inside, around and along repeatedly looking for where he'd damaged her. After several minutes she finally gave up and started to grip the sheets, panting and whimpering little protests while she waited. Vegeta probed about gently for several minutes more, but eventually he had to conclude there was nothing to find. A few sensitive spots, but no real damage . He must have just startled her, at worst he'd left one of those bruises she mentioned. He breathed a heavy sigh. He had caught himself just in time. He looked at her uncertainly... should he go now?

She noticed his hesitation and looked up at him.

"Is that all you've got?" She said, still breathless.

His body charged anew in response to the challenge and he growled.

"Blasted woman! This is difficult enough without you saying things like that!"

He moved back over her and resumed, gritting his teeth as he desperately tried to maintain his gentle pace. She began to move with more confidence and continued to explore until she gingerly began to toy with the highly sensitive skin around his severed tail. He scrunched his eyes and his fingers accidentally tore through the sheets and into the mattress below. A smile played at her features and she continued to play with him, winding him up tighter and tighter.

/What?/ Vegeta suddenly realized that her seemingly random hand movements since they'd started hadn't been random at all. She had been mapping his hot spots. And in the past few minutes she had begun to focus in on the ones she'd found.

She ran lazy circles about his tail, she bit gently at his neck, she scratched against his injuries and she whispered perfect breathless pleadings against his skin. His fingers were now gathering and pulling the mattress wires out of the inner structure as he gasped and shuddered against her. Clever fingers began pushing him closer and closer to the edge, getting ready to defeat him.

He began to feel himself about to lose control. He was moving inside the literal 'woman of his dreams' and she was everything he imagined and more! Her little touches, her little noises, they were maddening! He began trying to regain the upper hand, pulsing his ki through her as he had before. Her noises became louder and more breathless but that certainly didn't help Vegeta's situation. Plus he could feel the vibrations through her. Also. Not. Helping.

/No!/ He screamed in his head. This was important! This wasn't just some woman. This was Bulma! He needed to impress her! He couldn't afford to lose this! Oh... What if after all this all he achieved was 'Nice'?! Boring?! She'd never let him touch her again!

/No! /

Vegeta reached into his body. Searching for more power, he needed more control right now! He couldn't lose it now. He couldn't! He fought but her touches kept pushing him. He could just about see the confidence filling her unfocused eyes as she saw she was about to push him over. He reached deeper and deeper, desperately grasping into his soul to find the strength he needed.

Just as he was about to lose his body FINALLY kicked in. A new power coursed through him together with an incredible serenity and control. The amazing sensation was like nothing he'd ever experienced! His whole body felt like it was overflowing with intense, controlled power.

Bulma suddenly let out a loud gasp. He looked down. He was glowing! He was glowing! He had ascended! The intimate pleasure of her contact reached new levels as his senses became heightened. He almost lost himself in it.

Bulma screamed.

Vegeta's eyes widened. Oh gods he was hurting her! He quickly tried to pull away.

She reached up with impossible strength and dragged him back down.

She hadn't been screaming in pain. This was a whole other kind of screaming. She gasped for more air, clenching her thighs around him so tight it almost hurt.

Hurt?

Vegeta looked at the woman. Her skin had a faint glow, her eyes were now flickering between blue and aqua and her hair was sparking and dancing in the air around her head. Her usually imperceptible muscles had new definition.

Of course! His heart leapt. Their ki's were blended because they were together! When he had ascended some of the effect must have transferred into her!

Bulma panted and rocked against him. Vegeta gasped. There was a new tension in her down there and the sensation was overwhelming. He released the mattress wires and reached a hand up to softly touch her. Her skin didn't betray the weakness it had before, she was strong. **Incredibly** strong!

He hesitated a fraction of a second before he began to press in, gently at first, then harder and harder, adding more power with each movement until he began to let his body move as it wanted to. He didn't need to hold back anymore. He simply worked with the goal of making her scream. Louder.

* * *

Author note: Ok, so I know I've probably alienated half of you by inventing the "shared ascension" and I apologize for that. The concept was based on the Fusion saga wherein it was said that if their ki was perfectly mirrored their power could be blended. I thought 'i wonder of there's other ways to share power?' And, well, the rest is history. If I'm honest I also just really wanted to give Vegeta a knockout sex life haha! Poor guy's had a rough time of it, let him live a little!


	18. Chapter 18

Vegeta woke up first and stared at the GR ceiling. A little blush dusted at his cheeks as he remembered how she'd screamed right until the last second. Right until that final shockwave of pleasure overpowered her ascended body. That's when she'd clutched her arms around him and arched up to puff his name against his mouth in a quivering whisper. He'd come instantly after that. His eyes drifted shut as the mere memory sent another wave of arousal through him. The way his name had sounded through her lips at that moment... so intimate, so perfect. He turned to look at her lying sprawled out on the bed next to him. Vegeta wanted her to say his name like that again.

/Say it again. Just like that. Keep saying it like that until I die... what?/

Vegeta's eyes snapped back up to face the ceiling. What had that been? This was sex. This wasn't anything more than sex. Where did he get that 'until I die' nonsense from? He refocused his thoughts. It must have just been his mind playing tricks on him in the aftermath of the ascension.

Speaking of which. What had triggered him to finally ascend? He stared up at the ceiling. Much as the woman might like to think it was simply a 'worthy opponent' Vegeta knew it was more than that. Not that he'd admit it, but all of the droids she sent against him were 'worthy opponents'. They had come close to killing him many times. There must have been something else.

He thought back to that moment before he ascended. The feeling of desperation, the knowledge that he was losing. He'd never felt anything like that when her droids had him cornered. Truthfully, when he'd thought he was about to die his first emotional response was one of mild annoyance. Maybe even a little relief. It would be over. His pathetic failure of an existence would finally be over. What was there really for him to live for? He'd just be one more dead saiyan among billions of dead saiyans.

That must have been it. He needed to care whether or not he lost. He needed to give a damn. And she was the only thing he gave a damn about. He tried to feel at least a little irritated at having ascended during intimacy rather than during a fight as he had always envisioned, but he simply couldn't. He knew very well he'd never have ascended within a mile of her if it hadn't been by mistake. The escaping energy alone should have killed her and instead... His body pulsed at the memory of the glorious 'instead' that they had discovered. He turned to look at her and the 'until I die' feeling from before started to return.

He needed to get out of this bed.

He swung his legs over the side and stood. He wasn't an idiot. He knew the only reason she'd slept with him was to prove she could match him.

He turned to look back down at her perfect, form tangled in the white sheets. She was so impossibly beautiful... but he knew she didn't want him. The woman belonged to that scar face. They often fought and broke apart, but they always came back together. It was simply a matter of time.

He walked to the shower. He needed to get her scent off of him.

A few minutes later he emerged feeling much more clear headed. He was excited. He felt ready to test out this new ascension and see what it could do. He walked over to the GR door and opened it.

"Hey! Just where do you think you're going!?" Bulma's voice came from behind him.

Vegeta turned to look at her. She was glaring at him.

"That's not your concern, woman." He responded as a little wisp of hope shot through him. Had he been wrong? Did she want him to stay? Did she want him?

"Didn't your mother ever teach you to pick up your toys?" She said angrily. "As if I could walk after what you were doing to my perfect body! Put me in the healing pod if you're done playing with me!"

The little flicker of hope disappeared again. He stomped over and unceremoniously threw her over his shoulder as he walked her to the healing pod.

"Ouch!" She laughed. "Careful with the goods Mister!"

He tossed her into the pod and turned to go.

"Hey, you jerk! Get back here I haven't finished!"

Vegeta looked down at her.

She glared up at him from inside the pod, then suddenly a brilliant smile lit up her face. "Congratulations. Super saiyan." She put the mask in her mouth and the door shut, cutting off his view of her.

Vegeta stood there a moment, fighting the urge to just stay right there and wait for her to come out so that he could hold her again. He walked to the door. /...'toys'... 'playing with you'? Don't be absurd, woman. It's obvious you're the one playing with me./

He flew out the door.


	19. Chapter 19

/Six months/ Vegeta thought silently as he stared down at the familiar buildings. He had found himself here again.

It was six months now since he'd ascended. Six months since he'd heard her say his name in that quivering voice that still woke him up some nights. After he flown away that day he'd realized there was no reason for him to return. He had achieved his goal, he was a super saiyan. Now he just needed to control it and that could be learned anywhere.

He stared down at the complex and felt the usual little tug at his insides as he saw his GR still on the lawn in a silent invitation. But he knew he was never going back.

That woman had no idea what she had done to him and there was no way he would ever tell her. She hadn't done it on purpose. He knew she honestly believed his species was above such emotions. There was a little hint of flattery in that. But that belief had given her license to rip his heart to pieces with casual ease. The thought of telling her, pointing out his weakness to that careless female, watching the pity and regret fill her eyes as she realized what she'd done. No. That was worse than the injury. And besides, it didn't matter. He was perfectly fine. He had what he needed from her, now he just needed to wait for the androids. There was nothing between them and there never would be. And yet every few weeks he'd find himself hovering over her dwelling, looking for her ki.

It was just dull waiting. That was why he'd returned. He was bored. That was all.

He listened for her but she wasn't there. He waited a few minutes, closing his eyes to look further. He felt her in the distance approaching slowly. Vegeta's eyes snapped open. She was with the scar face.

He clenched his fists and flew closer to see the two of them in a hover car approaching the house. Vegeta masked his ki and tried to push the rage in him aside. He had known this day would come but that didn't mean he had to like it.

He watched the car pull up to the house and Bulma quietly walk out. Yamcha followed her, laughing and talking casually. He tried to put an arm around her.

Vegeta stared furiously at the boy. /Get away from her! Get your unworthy hands away!/

Bulma pulled out from under his arm and shot him a warning look.

They weren't together? Vegeta felt a wave of astonishment. He moved closer, until he was within earshot.

The boy stood slightly too close as they walked to the front door. "Hey, I was thinking we could do this again. I miss hanging out with you. Puar too. What about tomorrow we go to the beach and catch some rays?"

"Yamcha... Look thanks for the tickets and everything, but I think you're getting the wrong idea." Bulma said nervously.

"Come on, Bulma. I just miss you, that's all. I want to hang out and be friends, can't we do that?" He said the casual words even as he wrapped a hand around her arm, as if getting ready to pull her in for a kiss.

Vegeta clenched his fists and glared murderously at him. He'd better remove that hand from her right now if he wanted to keep it.

"Yamcha. Quit it. Your about as subtle as a brick wall." Bulma peeled his hand off. "We're not getting back together. I said it was over and I meant it."

"Huh? Who said anything about getting back together? I just want to hang out." He said defensively. "Besides, I've been having a hard time getting stronger lately. I was kind of wondering if that offer to train me still stands?"

There it was. The trump card. Vegeta watched Bulma hesitate.

She looked up at Yamcha with a torn expression. She wanted to fight, she wanted to but...

"Come on, please. Babe?" He said.

That did it. Her torn expression was replaced by one of annoyance. "I'm not your 'Babe' anymore Yamcha. You should go."

She turned to open the door.

"It's HIM isn't it?" Yamcha said angrily. "You're still hung up on that guy."

"Don't be idiotic." She said.

"He didn't care about you! He just used you to get what he wanted and left."

"I know." She said. "But he's still ten times the man you are." She locked the door.

Vegeta watched Yamcha storm back to his car where Puar sat expectantly.

"Yamcha..." The little cat said sympathetically.

"She still can't let go of that freak!" Yamcha spat. "He's all over her! All through her! It's like I'm not even here!" He started the car angrily and drove off.

Vegeta stood perfectly still. The new information slowly trickled through his mind. /She wants... me?/


	20. Chapter 20

Vegeta's mind ran in circles. Had the scar face been right? Could she actually want him? He battled with himself.

No. It didn't make sense. She was a tactician, a cold, calculating strategist. She wasn't the sort to develop such emotional attachments. But, then again, hadn't she said as much about him?

No. That idiot boy was just prone to jealousy. He was always implying a relationship between them where none existed. But, she had said that he was a good man... she knew he had served under Frieza, purging planets, she was clever enough to know what that meant, why would she say something like that about someone like him?

No. She was probably just trying to get rid of that boy. But why would she _**want**_ to get rid of him? Vegeta knew she wanted to train fighters to take on the androids. The scar face wanted her to train him, why had she turned the him down? There was no strategy in such a move. Did that mean that Vegeta was special? That she only wanted to fight through him?

No. That was absurd, she was probably just not interested in training that boy after he turned her down so insultingly in the past. But then, she had said she thought Vegeta had simply left after taking what he needed, if she was the kind to hold those grudges surely she'd have removed the GR.

Vegeta flew above the house and hovered there for the rest of the day. He continued to run circles in his mind as he watched Bulma's ki drift in and out of various rooms. The way she moved, it seemed wrong. Walking from room to room that way, she reminded him of a captive wild animal, pacing back and forth in its cage. While he'd known her she'd always been running between her family, her lab and him. Now she just seemed to be aimlessly passing time. Reading magazines, watching television. Night fell and she went to bed at a reasonable hour. That wasn't like her at all. She should have been just getting started in her lab, she shouldn't be ready to sleep until at least 3am.

Vegeta found himself drifting closer. He hadn't seen her up close in so long... He flew down and took a position outside her window. Just a quick glance at her, then he would go. It was foolish, she didn't want him. She would never want him. He looked in to see she was awake, staring at the ceiling. She tapped a bored finger against the bed, waiting for sleep. Vegeta looked at her. The longing for her was returning full force. Even if he did come back, what would he say? One doesn't just return so easily after six months.

Suddenly Bulma froze, her body tensed. The cloud behind him had shifted and Vegeta looked in horror to see his silhouette projected clearly on the ceiling. His breath stopped. A little voice told him to get out of there right now but something kept him still.

He watched her as she stared up at the shape a moment and her eyes seemed to sparkle a little.

She blinked the glistening away from her eyes and smiled softly at the ceiling. "Hey. What's that **awful** smell?" She said into the darkness. She sat up and turned to stare fearlessly at him. "Oh, it's you! How long since you've had a bath?"

Vegeta remembered these words. They were the words she'd said the first time he'd returned to earth in the stolen vessel.

She stood up and walked towards the shower. "This way, please."

He stared down at her /Can she really...? Just like that?/

"What? You want me to roll out the red carpet?!" She finished, completing her reenactment.

Vegeta flew inside, filled with silent gratitude as he followed her.

It didn't quite go as last time. She stood in front of the shower and turned it on as before, but the part where she then undressed and stepped under the water. That was new. "Are you coming in or not super saiyan?"

Vegeta looked at her glistening, wet body. He grinned. Oh, he was definitely coming in.

He allowed her to dominate for the first few minutes. She ran her hands strategically over him. Her formidable mind still remembered every hot spot she'd learned six months ago. When he'd decided that was enough he pressed her up against the shower wall, penetrated her and ascended with new practised ease. He smiled a cocky smile when she gasped and let out a little cry of ecstasy as the ascension took her. Then the heightened sensation hit his own body and he felt himself being swept away by the shock waves of pleasure. He let out a shuddered moan and pressed in. The tiles began to crack behind her powerful form. She cried out again and he shushed her through gritted teeth. The last thing they needed right now was to be interrupted. She bit into her knuckles against his shoulder in a desperate attempt to oblige, whimpering and shivering against him as he started to move. Bulma leaned in and puffed against his collarbone. "Vegeta..." She breathed the word out in a faint whisper.

Vegeta's heart rate accelerated for a completely new reason.

That longing, intimate way she said his name... Vegeta finally realized that's why it had sounded so incredible. The way she said his name... it left no doubt as to her feelings for him.

Later that night Vegeta put her passed out body into the healing pod, then back on her bed. He returned to sleep in his GR. Staying to sleep with her felt too much like an admission of something he wasn't ready to admit. He needed to know more before he'd admit something like that.

The next morning Bulma stormed through the GR door, having overridden the gravity and let herself in.

"Ok, we're NEVER doing that again." She announced with annoyance.

Vegeta looked at her in confusion.

Bulma stormed across to stand over him doing push ups on the floor. "That's right, I'm talking to YOU you big glow in the dark wrecking ball! That shower was completely trashed! Do you have ANY idea what kind of QUESTIONS I just went through?! From my PARENTS?"

"I believe the shower was YOUR idea, woman. Don't try to put your own mistakes on me." He tried to keep his face expressionless as he stood up. /...never?/ He felt his world crashing to a halt. /Never EVER?/

"I didn't tell you to get all 'super saiyan sex god' and **destroy** the place!" She said perching her hands on her hips angrily. "They thought it was an earthquake! The whole **house** was on the front lawn listening to **you** trying to push my perfect body through the wall of a perfectly good shower!"

"You didn't seem to complain at the time." He replied folding his arms and glaring at her. How was he going to survive here without EVER... he wasn't sure he had that much control! Even now he wanted her and she'd only just entered the room.

"Well I'm complaining now!" She said. "Listen Mister! You'd better learn some self restraint. That was the most awkward parent conversation in the HISTORY of awkward parent conversations! I am never EVER going through that again."

Vegeta glared at her a moment, /Building me up... then cutting me off. I should this how you toy with your males?!/

He took a slow step towards her, the betrayal arousing an old version of himself. The man she'd first met on Namek.

"H-Hey, what do you think you're doing?" She looked at him, obviously not liking the way he was stalking her one bit.

/If I just get things started... She'll probably fight a little bit I'll make sure not to injure her and once things get going.../ His eyes stared at her body with dangerous passion as she continued to yell, knowing there was nothing she could possibly do to stop him.

"VEGETA! Quit it!" Bulma slapped him across the face, then cursed and held her hand as the sting set in.

Vegeta stopped. He looked at her staring fearlessly into his eyes even as she cradled her hand. /She'd never look at me like that again. She'd hate and fear me forever./ He looked defeatedly at the floor and turned to walk away.

"Fair enough, woman. I will not touch you again." He said.

"Hey! What do you mean by that?!" She demanded. "I never said we couldn't do it. We just can't do it out THERE!"

Vegeta whipped around to look at her wide eyed.

"Oh, did you think I meant-?" Bulma said with a slight laugh. "Oh no way! As if I'd ever-" She stopped and stared at him.

Vegeta folded his arms and looked at the wall. "It's irrelevant now. Be clearer when you speak!"

Bulma slowly approached, wrapped her arms around his neck and gazed at him a second until he felt his face beginning to heat. Then she whispered his name in that 'special' way of hers before pressing her mouth over his.


	21. Chapter 21

Bulma flopped backwards onto the white sheets in a fit of breathless giggles. "Wow..." She said with a shaky voice as Vegeta lay panting softly beside her in the afterglow of the ascension. He turned to look over at her. She looked up at him and began to giggle again and he found a smile creeping onto his face despite himself. It was getting harder to keep his mask up around her. That day she had taken him back so simply had punched a crack in the fortress of ice around his soul. He'd felt it melting further each day since.

A little voice screamed against it. 'Hold her as much as you want but **never** trust her! Never trust **anyone**! That's weakness! That's just **asking** for betrayal!'

But as he spent time with her he found it harder and harder to keep from trusting her. She had done so much for him. Even when he threw it in her face she had simply taken him back. Surely that meant something? Surely if there was anyone in the universe that could be trusted it was this beautiful creature before him. In his eyes she seemed to be made entirely of warmth and light. And the ice melted further.

He gazed at her. After a few months together her body seemed to be adjusting to the repeated 'ascensions'. She didn't pass out afterwards anymore, though she was a little shaky. He had been watching with fascination as her very ki seemed to grow before his eyes. It was almost like there was a whole other ki growing inside her. And her figure was improving if that was possible. He could swear her breasts were bigger...

Bulma smiled softly as she saw he was gazing at her again. His mask had slipped, what he felt for her began to peek through onto his face. She noticed it and her smile suddenly disappeared. Her eyes glassed and a gut wrenching sadness overtook her face before she quickly turned away from him.

Vegeta looked at her back in confusion.

"Hey," Her voice was masked and too cheerful. "I'll get out of your way for a while, you should keep training. Those androids aren't going to defeat themselves!" She walked over to the pod and slipped inside.

Vegeta stared helplessly at the pod. She had been doing that for a little while now. There was something causing her sadness and she wasn't telling him. His heart begged her to tell him what it was but his mouth just couldn't form the words to ask. He decided to train. He couldn't protect her from the sadness but he was sure as hell going to protect her from everything else.

A few weeks later Bulma sat opposite him at lunch looking a little nervous.

"Hey, there's something I've been putting off telling you. " She said hesitantly.

Vegeta's heart jumped. /Finally! /

He tried to keep casual, continuing eating, trying not to look straight at her in case she got uncomfortable and stopped. He waited as she collected her thoughts.

"I have to leave for a little while." She finally said.

He looked up at her. /Leave?/

"Its April already and the androids will be coming in May next year. I need to gather the dragon balls." She said it a little too cautiously, like she had practiced it. "The last thing we need is for some idiot to make his own wish on them and deactivate them for a year. It's better to play it safe."

"I'll join you." Vegeta said. "The process will go faster with two."

"No!" She said a little too forcefully, then corrected herself. "Uh, no, that's okay. I've gathered them plenty of times. You need to stay here and keep training. It should only take a few months."

/MONTHS?!/ Vegeta felt his universe implode. She was going away for MONTHS and she was just telling him now?!

He tried to keep a straight face.

"Anyway, I know it's a little sudden, but it's not like it's a big deal for us to be apart for a bit. I mean, you're leaving after you defeat Goku anyway, so..." She trailed off and fought the sadness from her face again.

Vegeta looked up at her and tried to keep the pain off of his own face. She still thought he was leaving? She thought he could just go? Well, he supposed he had left before, but how could she not see that he was completely...

Bulma stood. "Anyway, like I said I've been putting off telling you but I can't put it off anymore. I'm going this afternoon."

/THIS AFTERNOON?!/

Vegeta struggled with his voice. No! You need to say it OUT LOUD! Tell her you want to stay with her! That you can't imagine leaving her! Tell her! Now!

Vegeta sat silently. And watched her leave.


	22. Chapter 22

Vegeta trained alone in his GR. The only sound was the grunts and puffs from his own body and the gentle whirring of the training equipment. He punched furiously into the droids. She was gone. She was gone and he'd done nothing to stop her. He felt his frustration overflowing into his movements. All he could see was the sadness in her eyes as she'd talked about him leaving.

It was HIM! He was the reason for her pain this entire time! And he'd just let her leave, let her go away thinking she meant nothing to him!

He punched again but his rage against his own inability was making him sloppy. He missed the droid and overshot, creating an opening which the other droids quickly took advantage of. Pain shot through him as they began to fire into his body.

Good. He deserved that. He had caused her pain, he deserved to suffer for that. Why couldn't he say it?! What was WRONG with him?!

The lunch chime sounded and the droids powered down. He landed softly on the floor and listened to the deafening silence. Why couldn't he say it?

He walked to the airlock and gathered up the cargo container of food. He set it on the table and began to unpack it.

Maybe if he practiced. After all any new skill required practice. Maybe if he just said it enough times without her there he could get to where he could say it to her face.

He sat down and looked at the food. He might as well do it now. Anything to get rid of this overwhelming silence. He opened his mouth.

"..." The words caught in his throat as he suddenly felt extremely foolish alone in the silent room.

No! He needed to say it. He was hurting her! He needed to say it.

"B..." His chest felt tight and his throat was dry. He grabbed a pitcher of water and gulped it down.

Maybe if he avoided using her name. It felt it of place in his mouth. She was simply 'the woman'. He felt the warmth returning. The fiery, beautiful woman. His little blue saiyan.

He gritted his teeth in renewed determination. He had to do this. If there was ever anything worth fighting for...

He tried again. "There's something..." He stopped. His voice sounded incredibly hollow in the empty room and the foolish feeling had returned. He felt his face going red.

/Just get it over with!/ He yelled at himself inwardly.

Maybe if he couldn't see the empty room he wouldn't feel so idiotic. He closed his eyes. To his surprise that was actually a little better. He clenched his fists and straightened his back. "There's something you need to know!" He shouted.

"What's up?"

Vegeta whipped around to see Bulma on the giant GR screen behind him. "W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE, WOMAN?!" He wasn't sure his heart would ever begin beating again, he could swear it had stopped dead in his chest from the shock.

"It's lunch time. " She said simply with her 'isn't it obvious?' expression. "What do you want to tell me?"

Vegeta looked up at her. /NOW! Say it now! / He opened his mouth but his lungs seized up and his voice suddenly caught again. "Ah-... I-..." He clenched his fists. No good. "You're late! I was about to eat without you!" He finally yelled as he cursed every day of his miserable existence.

"Well excuse ME!" She yelled back. "I happen to be a little busy right now saving the Earth? You may have heard if it? Little blue planet? Famous for great beaches and incredibly sexy women? Popular vacation spot for spoiled saiyan princes who don't have any manners!" Bulma glared down at him.

Vegeta scowled at her even as the overwhelming joy ripped through him. /She missed me! She missed me and she wanted to see me!/

"Well if the task is beyond your ability then you should have accepted my offer of assistance." He retorted, folding his arms.

When she left so suddenly it had caught him off guard. The pain of it. Could he really allow some woman the ability to cause him that much pain? It had raised a slight question in his heart as to the wisdom of trusting her so completely, but as he looked up at her all his questions vanished. He felt safe. She was his and he was hers. He felt his trust in her growing again.

"What?! Who's the one who's always keeping me standing around while he fixes his hair in the healing pod?!" She said back.

"I do not 'fix my hair'!" He shouted.

"Oh please!" She grinned, seeing she'd gotten under his skin. "You're SO vain. I see you doing those little 'stretches' you do. Posing more like! You think I don't know you wait until I'm watching?"

"AS IF I WOULD CARE WHETHER YOU'RE WATCHING, WOMAN!" Vegeta fought the blush from his face. Curse her! She wasn't supposed to notice that.

Bulma beamed victoriously, knowing she'd won the round. "So come on already. I'm getting hungry. Are we eating or not?"

Vegeta grinned at her and sat down. He began to devour his food as he listened to her tell him about her day. Her voice soothed through his soul and all his anger and frustration seemed silly. He found that little smile creeping back to his face again. She hadn't left. She was just away. She was his. She wanted him.

She confirmed that her father had checked in on him as she had instructed and ran through a checklist of equipment maintenance that Vegeta would need to perform in her absence. Then she was gone and Vegeta was alone again but the overwhelmingly quiet, hollow atmosphere had disappeared. He felt full of energy and ready to train. He heard the droids powering up and grinned.

The following weeks were much the same. Vegeta listened as she gradually made her way from place to place. It seemed to take forever. Surely it shouldn't take so long to gather the dragon balls? But Vegeta knew she was working as fast as she could. He could have said that just by looking at her. During those six weeks she looked increasingly exhausted. Even though he could only see her from the shoulders up he could tell she was having a hard time.

As the weeks wore on she seemed to get worse. Now and then she'd suddenly double over as if she taken a punch to the gut. She said the local water didn't agree with her. Then one day, five weeks from when she'd left she didn't call at all.

Vegeta spent the entire day in a panicked rage. Three days passed with nothing and he began to go completely out of control, nearly blowing up the GR several times. The only thing that stopped him was the knowledge that it was her only means of contacting him. Just as he'd been about to fly off and track her down himself she had appeared on the screen looking deadly pale. She said she thought she'd finally cleared the bug from her system and she felt much better now. She slowly improved after that. Although the dark circles under her eyes revealed she wasn't completely recovered.

Vegeta found new reason to worry. Bulma didn't say it, but as soon as she cleared the virus she seemed to enter dangerous territory. She kept glancing off screen, like she was checking for predators.

One day as she was in the middle of talking to him her eyes noticed something off screen and a little fear shot through her expression that sent a chill down to the depths of his soul.

"Ah! Sorry, I have to sign off early. I'll call you tomorrow!" She suddenly ran out of his view and his saiyan hearing picked up the beginnings of a high pitched shriek before she cut out. Was it a predator?! Was she alright?!

Vegeta didn't sleep that night. Why why why hadn't he insisted on going with her? He should be there to protect her! She was strong, he knew she was strong. But why couldn't she let him protect her?!

Bulma appeared the next day with a story about a technical failure that caused one of the machines to overheat, but Vegeta knew what he'd heard. He didn't call her on it. He knew she just didn't want him to worry. She would never forgive him if he began to treat her as if she was weak. He knew that. He knew she was a fighter, that she could handle herself. He knew it and he cursed his idiocy for simultaneously loving and hating that about her.

The weeks wore on until it was three months since she'd left. The dark circles under her eyes were definitely getting worse. He kept pretending they weren't there, but they were. Vegeta watched her continuing to glance off screen, looking for danger. His frustration began to win over his endurance. He would go get her. He would go get her and bring her back. She was his! She belonged where he could protect her. He knew she'd be mad at him, she'd yell and bluster about not needing his protection, but to hell with it! He couldn't take this anymore.

That's when she'd appeared saying she only had one dragon ball left to get. She promised it would only be another few weeks and asked him in that 'intimate' voice of hers to please wait for her "Just a little longer".

How was he supposed to argue with that?

Vegeta waited. Those weeks he trained harder than he'd ever trained. He couldn't bear any moment without some distraction. Every time he stopped he began to worry as his mind imagined terrifying scenarios.

And worst of all he missed her. He missed her with every fiber in his body. He lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, quietly whispering the speech he had prepared. As soon as she got back. As soon as she got back and was safe again he would tell her everything. He would do it. He had to. He knew now he couldn't afford to lose her again. His body wouldn't take it.


	23. Chapter 23

Vegeta stood on the GR steps and watched the sky as Bulma's hoverplane came in for a landing. Her parents excitedly stood on the lawn watching with baited breath as well. There was electric anticipation in the air as she lowered the craft to the ground and hopped out. Vegeta wanted to run over and grab her up in his arms but her parents were right in the way. They would probably keep her to themselves for the first while. He scowled, but truthfully he didn't mind. She was back. She was back and she was safe. He watched as her parents dashed over to her and hugged her tightly.

Bunny Briefs soon seemed to forget completely about Bulma and ran to the craft to grab out an animal carrier. Vegeta could tell from the absence of ki that there was nothing alive inside it, but both her parents instantly began to stare in excitement at it. They seemed almost more excited by the empty container than they were by her return. Bulma left them to carry the container inside and made a bee-line for Vegeta.

"Hey you." She said with a smile as she approached. "Did you miss me?"

Vegeta's eyes flicked between the anomalous container and the woman, torn between his excitement at her return and his curiosity.

"What's in that?" He said distractedly.

"Just a new animal I found for dad's enclosure." She said as she pushed him into the GR and closed the door.

"What kind of animal?" Vegeta couldn't fathom an animal without any ki.

"Oh, seriously? I'm right here in front of you after four months and all you're interested in is the souvenir I brought back?" Bulma pulled her shirt off and began working on her skirt.

Vegeta finally looked at her.

"I don't know what kind, it was just cute!" She got the skirt off and pushed him further into the room. "Cute enough to keep them distracted for a few hours." She added in her bedroom voice as she ran her hands down his stomach to toy along the waistband of his shorts.

Vegeta's body finally seemed to register her presence. He shuddered as her hands began to work on him. She wasn't wasting any time. She continued to nip at his skin as she slipped a hand inside his shorts. His hips jerked and he began to lean into her.

No! He needed to say his speech. He'd been practising it non-stop for days. Now, before anything else, he needed to tell her how he felt. He pulled her hands off of him.

"There's something I-"

She let him keep her hands and leaned in with her body. She began to nip at his neck. "Didn't you miss me?" She whispered.

Vegeta scrunched his eyes shut. He could do this. He took a breath and started over.

"There's something I've decided, woman." He said with a shaky voice.

"Less talk." She panted against his skin. "I want to show you. I missed you so much! Let me show you how much." She dotted more kisses along his skin leading to his mouth. Vegeta's body burned hotter at the phrase and he opened his mouth in one last attempt to get his speech out. It was all the opportunity she needed. Her tongue raced inside his mouth in a deep, passionate kiss.

Vegeta released her arms and wrapped his hands around her waist as he leaned in to return the kiss.

He could tell her later.

That day Vegeta lay staring at the ceiling. The more he thought about it the more his ridiculous speech seemed unnecessary. 'Let me show you how much.' She had said that and her words made sense to him. What was the point of a silly speech? He would simply tell her he loved her and then he would show her how much. He would spend the rest of his life showing her. That would be his 'speech'. He looked at her sleeping beside him and smiled. The safe, contented feeling was back. He rolled on to his side and put an arm around her. He had never just held her before. It had always felt awkward and forced, but he felt ready now. He felt ready for all kinds of things now. He smiled at the comfortable warmth coming off of her and drifted to sleep.

A few hours later Bulma woke up. Vegeta felt her squirming to get out from under his arm and he quickly released her.

"Ah! Sorry." He said.

Bulma shot him a confused look. Did he just apologize to her? "Uh, no problem." She brushed it off and stood up to go to the pod.

Vegeta got up and stood outside the pod with folded arms. He glared at the door as his insides twisted. This was as good an opportunity as he was likely to get. He was going to do it. He was going to tell her.

He waited and watched until Bulma finally emerged. She stretched prettily, then stopped mid-yawn to look at him quizzically. "What's with you?"

Vegeta clenched his fists. He could do this.

He breathed in, /Now!/

"I-want-to-always-fight-at-your-side!" He blurted rapidly.

/Curses!/ He chastised himself. He was so nervous he'd said it the saiyan way instead of the human way. He froze, wondering if he should restate it the human way or let her answer first.

She froze a moment, translating, then a wave of beautiful, grateful joy swept over her.

Vegeta's heart leapt. /She understood!/

Bulma sighed and her whole body seemed to let out a hidden tension with the burst of air. "Well, why didn't you just say that before? Gosh, you freaked me out with that 'we need to talk' stuff."

He couldn't stop himself. He was so happy he approached and kissed her. Bulma's eyes widened. She returned the kiss hesitantly at first, then let it take her. He knew why she hesitated. Until now he had NEVER initiated any physical contact.

He broke the kiss and whispered against her lips, his dark eyes full of hope. "Will you stand with me?"

Bulma looked at him cheerfully. "Of course! We'll fight like nothing they've ever seen!"

Vegeta's eyes lit with perfect ecstatic joy. He was almost exploding with happiness! Not that Bulma could see it because instantly he pulled her in to press his mouth over hers again and he remained there for quite some time. She would stand with him! This woman and he were finally, officially paired!

After a while she breathlessly pulled back and looked at him. "What's gotten into you while I was away?" She laughed. "Well, lover boy, much as I wish I could stay here and pash, I've got a bunch of stuff to do." She got dressed and paused at the door to shoot one last quizzical look at him. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Vegeta smiled and let her go. She would be back. She was his woman.

A few days later Bulma sat opposite him chatting happily about the droids. He watched as she animatedly tried to explain some new breakthrough she'd made by combining manufacturing techniques from the encrypted files on Frieza's ship with existing Earth technology. He didn't understand a word, but he loved watching her light up as she talked about it.

He felt at peace. He had finally done it. He had told her and not only had she understood, she even responded in kind! He knew she wouldn't want a speech. The very **idea** of a bunch of sentimental chatter, 'we need to talk', as she put it, seemed to repel her. No, Bulma wanted simple words followed by bold actions to back them up. She really was just like a saiyan.

He settled contentedly into his chair. He had finally cleared things up.

Three months passed and Vegeta began to get excited. His world was just about perfect. He was a super saiyan! The woman he wanted, wanted him! And he had not one, but TWO great battles to look forward to. The androids were only six months away, and then after that he could face that idiot Kakarot and finally put him back in his place. He started to get fired up, excitedly looking forward to each day.

He woke up earlier than usual and grinned. The woman wasn't in bed yet. She was still in her lab. Today was' new battle droid' day and Vegeta was excited. She had been talking about these, they sounded tough. He decided to go down and get the new droids himself rather than waiting for her to carry them up. He got dressed and headed for her lab. Her ki was alone in there as usual.

Vegeta came closer and furrowed his brow in confusion. Bulma's ki was alone, but she was talking, and there was another noise as well. Not talking, just sort of high pitched babbling. He approached closer.

"Uh-uh! Trunks you little rascal! Put that down or mummy's going to get cross with you! How did you even get that?" Bulma pried a spanner from the hand of the infant in the crib.

And Vegeta's perfect world shattered.


	24. Chapter 24

Bulma sat casually cooing and giggling with a little baby boy that couldn't have been anything but hers.

"T-That..." Vegeta began as his power of speech returned.

"Vegeta!" Bulma noticed his presence and quickly dashed in front of the crib. "What are you doing down here?"

"That infant..." He felt like he did when Frieza shot him. That numb, empty feeling. The little boy stared up at him curiously.

"It... it has no ki." He finished lamely.

Bulma could see the jig was up. She sighed and walked over to take a small badge off of the boy's shirt. Vegeta suddenly saw brilliant ki shining from the boy. He hadn't seen such high ki in something so small since Gohan. His face contorted in pain as he finally had enough information to put two and two together.

"...It's mine?"

"You're the father." Bulma said. "But no. He's not yours. He's mine."

"What?" The cold way she said it, he felt like a dagger was piercing into him. He looked in horror as her icy expression revealed she was just getting started.

"Look, I didn't tell you because I know saiyans don't really get into the whole family thing and I didn't want you to think I expected you to do anything special. This was my own fault. I didn't realize the healing pod would deactivate my contraceptive. I didn't think, and I got pregnant. I had a son, but that doesn't change anything between us."

Vegeta watched the callousness in her expression turn to mild amusement.

"I'm not sixteen anymore. I know what this is. What we are. You're a soldier on shore leave, I'm your local squeeze. Just a bootie call. I bet you've got hotties dotted up and down the galaxy. I'm Ok with that. I decided I was okay with it a long time ago. And when you're done here you'll leave and I'll stay."

Bulma's expression got darker. Vegeta felt her begin to twist the dagger.

"And just in case you're getting ideas let me say right now that my son will stay here too. You can take your saiyan tradition and shove it up your saiyan butt. There's no way you're putting my son in some pod to go conquer a planet. My boy is staying with me! If you want him you're going to have to pry him from my cold, dead hands and then you'd better run far and you'd better run fast."

Her eyes flamed with a dark, hellish fire as the fighter in her teamed up with her maternal instinct.

"Because the minute I'm resurrected I'll come after you with everything I've got. And that's a lot. I've got powerful friends and I'll send every one of them against you. If you kill them I'll keep resurrecting them until they win. And meanwhile I'll build an army of ships that'll make Frieza's fleet look like bathtub toys! No matter where you go I will find you. I will kill you. And I will take my son back."

Vegeta stepped back. His eyes darted between the fearsome creature and the little boy. He flew away.


	25. Chapter 25

Vegeta flew through the halls at lightning speed. He smashed straight through the exit, knocking the doors off their hinges and sending them crashing on to the grass.

He didn't have any thoughts yet. He didn't have any feeling yet. He didn't know anything beyond the burning desire to get as far away from this place as possible. He flew up into the sky, higher and higher until the piercing cold and lack of oxygen forced him to stop. He paused, panting in the thin air and looked longingly upwards at the stars. He needed a ship. He needed a ship right now. He looked around at the empty sky all around him. /No ship. I need a ship! I need to go further!/

He quickly searched his mind. /The hangers!/

He blasted back down through the atmosphere towards the Capsule Corp hangers. A ball of ki made short work of the doors as he flew through and began to frantically search for a vessel. Any vessel to get him away from here right now.

His mind was starting to catch up.

/... Lie.../ It slowly began to say. He pushed the little voice down. /Not yet!/ He could deal with that after he found a ship. He propelled himself through the rooms, the air currents from his speed created loud crashes as the large aircraft and cargo containers were knocked into each other.

A familiar shape caught his eye. /Finally!/

A Capsule Corp spaceship sat in among various crafts. Vegeta shot over to it and inside. /Work!/ He yelled in his head as he quickly activated it. He listened in relief as the ship powered up and began running through the start-up sequence.

/... Son.../ The little voice began to sneak back in. Vegeta pushed it down again. /Not yet!/ He wasn't clear of this place yet.

He shot back out of the ship and aimed both hands at the ceiling. A bright flash of ki later he had a clear path for takeoff. He zipped back inside and watched the countdown.

The ship slowly lifted off the ground and began moving into the sky.

/... She.../ Vegeta pushed it back. /NOT YET!/ He shouted in his head.

The ship cleared the atmosphere and he programmed it for a solar system he knew in the past. It began to move and he looked out the window as the little blue planet became too small to see.

/Okay./ He said to the little voice. /Now./

He allowed the pain to hit him. Vegeta grabbed his arm around his stomach as his body convulsed from the shockwave of betrayal.

He collapse to the floor.

A month later he arrived at the solar system. The ship wasn't fully stocked, but Vegeta hadn't noticed. He hadn't much felt like eating. He hadn't even felt like turning on the lights. He sat in the quiet ship and played the events through in his head over and over.

Some days he allowed the sadness to win, some days the anger, some days the empty numbness. He sat there, slowly rotating between the three. The ship announced the destination had been reached and Vegeta looked quizzically at the control panel. He'd half forgotten that he was even in a ship. Where had he been going again? He slowly picked himself up and looked out the window.

A belt of asteroids floated lazily around a red star. It didn't look familiar. Why would he send himself to an asteroid field? Maybe the coordinates were wrong.

He stepped over to the control panel and looked at it. /Ah. I see./ He thought. No. The coordinates weren't wrong. He was right where he'd programmed the ship to go. He exhaled softly and went to sit back in his corner. He must have been in a panic and programmed the first coordinates he could think of. His eyes glanced out the window as another lumbering chunk of his homeworld ambled past.

/Fitting./ He thought with a wry smile. /I've traveled from one shattered world back to the other./

Vegeta sat there a few days. Watching the pieces of his planet drift around him. Now and then he wondered if it might be best to just open the door and join them.

After a while he noticed something shiny floating among the rocks. He watched it a while. He couldn't quite tell what it was but it was a distinctive shape. Finally curiosity drove him to get up and look properly at it through the window.

"Hn." He smirked and ambled back over to sit down. It was a table. A standard issue military table. Probably was on one of the ships around the planet before Frieza blew it up.

He remembered those. He used to eat off of them with his team when they reported back to the Vegeta-sai base. As a child he'd eat off of one with his father.

Thoughts of his father began to drift through his head. He was proud of his father. King Vegeta had been a great warrior and a born leader. He took to the task of ruling as king like he was built for it. Even when Frieza came and took his power from him he never lost his pride.

He watched the shiny table disappear from view. /He was a good father./ He thought quietly. He remembered how as a boy they would dream together that one day Vegeta would become a super saiyan.

Vegeta began to feel a little pleased. /I did it, Father. I made it. I'm a super saiyan./

It had been his own dream as much as it was his father's, but still, it felt good to know he had at least done that. He had fulfilled at least one of his father's dreams for him.

Vegeta looked around him. Sitting in the dark, beaten by some weakling female. What would his father think if he saw him now? He started to feel an annoyance building at himself on his father's behalf. He could feel his chastising. What was he doing here? He had an opponent to fight! Had Vegeta waited so long to achieve the ascension only to run away from his first battle?

He felt a little stir and looked at the window. He went to move but the sadness punched him down again. /This is not an opponent that can be beaten with mere power. Even a super saiyan cannot stand against it./ He thought softly.

But his father didn't accept that. Vegeta knew there was more to true strength than just power. If his father had taught him anything, he had taught him that. Vegeta slowly stood.

How could he run? How could he just run away like a coward? She had come and taken his world from him, but hadn't Frieza done the same thing to his father? Did HE let it stop him from fighting? Did HE run away? No. He focused on killing Frieza and taking back what was his!

Vegeta slowly remembered the fight he had so lamely fought against 'the attraction'. Surely he could try again. After all, her mask was off now. He had seen the hideous monster within.

/That woman./ He started to feel his hatred burn a little. /That foul woman and her brat./

Rage slowly punched back against the grief. /How dare she! That conniving, calculating.../ He felt a little of his energy return as his anger got the upper hand and forced the sadness into submission.

This was more like it. He stood up and walked to the window. He had sworn he would honour them. He was the last of the saiyans. The greatest of all saiyans. And he had a job to do.

He looked at the controls.


	26. Chapter 26

Vegeta took the ship to the closest planet capable of sustaining life and set to work training again. His body was weakened from the over a month of self pity. He pushed that era away, silently swearing he would never tell _anyone _about that month. It didn't happen. He went to space to train. That was all.

He killed an animal and ate it. Feeling his energy return, he decided to try out the transformation again. For the first time he found himself anticipating the serenity of the transformation more than the power. He could really use that serenity right now.

He braced his feet against the ground and began to raise his power, searching for the ascension. It didn't come as quickly as he was used to, but he supposed that was to be expected after such a long time hardly moving and only eating emergency rations.

He raised his power higher, creating a large crater under his feet... Nothing.

Vegeta looked at his skin in confusion. Nothing. /What?/ He began to feel a sinking, ominous sensation.

He pushed his power higher still. The crater grew enormous.

"Come on!" He yelled as the planet began to shake. "COME ON!" The planet started breaking apart, forcing him to stop. He stood, heaving exhausted breaths as the dust cleared around him. He hadn't ascended.

Vegeta stared with wide eyes of disbelief. Surely he could ascend. That creature couldn't possibly have taken that from him as well!

He finally realized what it was. His focus was gone. She had left him so broken that he had begun to question his every movement. He needed to regain his confidence. His belief that he could do and get whatever he wanted.

He slowly flew out of the crater and looked down at the planet from a position high in the clouds. He needed a thought. Something to focus him. Something to remind him of what he was. Furious at himself and more furious at the harpy that put him in this position he began running through possibilities in his mind. What did he stand for? What was there to care about?

He closed his eyes and ran images through his mind.

He finally settled on an image of his broken planet. His people. The saiyans. He cared about their memorial. They were counting on him. He was the last saiyan, /besides that Kakarot/, his mind added.

Suddenly a thought occured. What if he couldn't ascend? Their greatest warrior would become that third class fighter, Kakarot. That would be the image people would form in their heads when they thought of saiyans. Throughout the universe, when anyone thought of a super saiyan they would picture that idiot! He would be their memorial. Laughing and running about the galaxy destroying his people's warrior reputation thousands of years in the making! He envisioned that.

/There's no WAY I'm letting that happen!/ He would NOT let his people be remembered through that MORON!

He moved to a new spot and raised his power again. It took a long while, it was inefficient and messy. Energy poured out of him needlessly as he struggled to make the jump to super saiyan. Yet again he came close to tearing the planet apart, but then the ascension finally kicked in. He felt a wave of serenity take him as he looked at the glow shining through his skin. He sighed with relief.

The serenity brought clarity as well. Vegeta ran a quick calculation in his head. Based on the ship's calendar he only had a little over four months until the androids arrived and it would take a month just to get back to earth. That left him three months to train, minus the time it would take to find a new uniform. It would be a cold day in hell before he went and asked for his armor back from that scheming female. He'd rather have fought in his training shorts than see her hideous face again. That didn't leave much time to tidy up his ascension. He needed to get it controlled again until he could flick it on and off as before. He needed to prove he could do it better than the idiot.

Vegeta stopped at an old outpost and grabbed a fresh uniform on the way back. He'd half hoped he'd find a newer model, but it was an old base. He decided to take what he could get. At least he'd be fighting in his saiyan armor. He made his way back to earth and arrived with just two days to spare. Just enough time to eat and rest up. He felt the anticipation building. He couldn't care less about this planet, he was tempted to wait and let them blow it up, then fight them afterwards but he knew that would spread rumors about whether he had allowed them to destroy it or whether he had simply been unable to prevent it.

No. He'd kill them right away and prove to everyone that he was the strongest saiyan. The only saiyan worth mentioning.

May 12th finally arrived and he made his way to where he could feel the other fighters gathering. He masked his ki and hung back. He didn't know how much they knew and he didn't feel like talking about it. He came to fight. That was all. He would fight, he would win, and then he would go.

He watched on as the woman appeared to see the battle, she stood with the scar face. As he thought. She must have gone back to him.

A little wisp of his grief began to well up in him. Six months had really passed. She had changed her hair... his boy was getting bigger.

No. He reminded himself. Not his boy. He replaced the image with the one of her standing between him and his son with cold, threatening eyes. "He's not yours. He's mine."

The boy wasn't his. Vegeta had no claim on him. The woman had made that very clear. He felt the hatred rearing up to slam the grief back down. That fool woman and her brat...

He listened as Gohan asked the baby's origins and moved closer, eager to hear her response. Before she got a chance Kakarot revealed he already knew. He even knew the name! Vegeta fumed. Did EVERYONE know about this boy but him?!

He watched the shocked panic on Bulma's face. She questioned how Goku could possibly know that, she hadn't told anyone. He saw her quickly add that she had "wanted it to be a surprise".

That hit Vegeta like a punch in the gut. Surprise? He didn't buy that for a second. Had she intended to hide it? Was she planning to wipe him completely from the boy's life. He looked down and finally noticed.

The boy had no tail.

/That B**CH!/ He stared hatred at her. He bet it was so! She had removed his tail! What more proof did he need? She planned to raise the child as a human! She was just going to wipe him completely from his life! Any lingering attachment he felt for her evaporated that second. There was nothing left but rage.

Vegeta flew in the direction of the city and began to look around, he wanted to get this over with and get the hell out of here.

Two hours passed with no sign of the androids, then finally he felt the scar face's ki dropping rapidly. He flew over to see the android with his arm through the boy's chest. A pleased grin crossed his features. Of all the people they could have killed, how thoughtful of them. He was beginning to like these androids.

The other fighters scramble to save the scar face while Kakarot took the right of first opponent. Vegeta watched on. Kakarot demanded a clear area to fight in and the android provided one, but Kakarot still wasn't satisfied. He was certainly picky. They flew to a new location and Vegeta watched the other saiyan struggling to keep pace. He was becoming an embarrassment. Finally it became apparent the virus was the cause. Vegeta scowled. That idiot needed saving again! He watched as the Namek tried to come to his aid and kicked him aside. He would not have it said that a saiyan needed saving by a Namek. Painful as it was Kakarot was a saiyan. With only two saiyans left Vegeta needed to ensure both of them left a legacy of unequaled power. They needed to be peerless. Perfect warriors. He wanted the galaxy to remember that the only thing strong enough to kill a saiyan was another saiyan.

He punched the fat android off of him and chastised the imbecile for his idiocy, then cautiously kicked him in the direction of the other fighters. He was careful not to make contact lest he be contagious. The Namek caught him by his clothes and dropped him quickly, obviously thinking the same way.

"Daddy no!" His son cried.

Vegeta felt the word sting like nothing else. /Stop it! Don't say that word.../

"One of you needs to take Kakarot home right now and give him the antidote. He's running out of time! " He yelled.

They looked up as if it was a novel idea. /Can they ALL really be THAT stupid? They actually needed to be TOLD to take the dying man to the medicine? / He marveled that Kakarot had managed to find a whole group of mental equals.

He finally turned his attention to the androids. They had been talking among themselves, but now the fat one had turned his attention to Vegeta.

They traded barbs for a while, then finally it became time for Vegeta to ascend. He braced his feet against the ground and focused his mind.

The ascension was still messy, energy leaked out pointlessly as before but it only left a small crater and he hoped they would pass it off as an attempt to intimidate his opponent with a flashy ascension.

He stood and smirked at the android, then something caught his eye. He glanced over at the other fighters staring in amazement at him. They didn't know. They didn't know he had become a super saiyan.

The little bald one was asking questions.

"Well, I'm confused. I thought you had to be like Goku to be one! Goku's so calm and detached and pure hearted. But obviously those aren't considered prerequisites."

A quick thought occurred to him. What if they ask Bulma how he ascended? The smaller fighters were fairly close to the woman. Especially the bald one...

He began picturing the laughter in their eyes.

/THERE'S NO **WAY** I'M LETTING IT BE SPREAD ABOUT THAT MY FIRST ASCENSION WAS WHILE HAVING **SEX!/**

He quickly put the fight on hold and began to try to think of a decent story.

"Afraid not." He began. "There's more than one way to reach the goal... Yes! To each his own. "

If he gave them something believable maybe they wouldn't pursue it further... He stretched for time by talking about the internal struggle as he wracked his brain for the most masculine ascension story he could think of.

"It was my **fury** that kept me alive!" He babbled on as he glanced over, amazingly the androids were just standing there listening in as well.

"I decided to continue my training in the solitude of space, where I would be unhindered by the distractions of the earth. And when a violent electrical storm erupted in the skies of the planet I was on, I welcomed it."

He glanced sideways at the fighters. Amazingly, they were eating up every word. Vegeta began to get into his own story, even letting himself become a bit poetical. "It seemed fitting. Like it was an outward manifestation of the storm that was raging inside me."

He started to get carried away.

"Then the meteors started coming down! But I was determined to survive and to protect my ship from destruction. It was my only way out! My only way off that nightmarish heap of rubble."

He tried to push the sound of Bulma doubled over with laughter out of his head. "Meteors?! Really? An electrical storm AND meteors?!"

"I thought I had everying under control, but then, the mother of all meteors seemed to appear out of nowhere! To claim my ship, and my life."

Brain Bulma got louder. "Are you guys actually BUYING this?!" She cried through the breathless convulsions of laughter. But amazingly they seemed to be still listening intently.

"Normally, it would have been child's play to blow up that rock, but after training at 450 times normal gravity for so long, it took everything I had, and more!" He'd decided they didn't need to know it had taken ten times the gravity it took Kakarot to trigger the ascension.

"Then something just snapped. Something inside of me. I didn't CARE anymore. I didn't CARE about being better than Kakarot. I didn't care about being a super saiyan. I didn't care if I lived. I didn't care about anything! And then, it happened." He finished.

He turned to face them. The Namek looked a little suspicious, but the other three were completely fooled. He kept his face masked as relief washed through him.

"Yes." He was talking more to himself than to them now. "THAT'S how it happened. THAT'S how I became a super saiyan."

"Yeah... sure. THAT'S how." Brain Bulma said.


	27. Chapter 27

Vegeta finished the first android and bluffed the second one into retreat. He turned and demanded one of the beans then waited as they hesitated, watching the distrust in the other fighters' eyes before they reluctantly tossed him a senzu. It didn't matter. He didn't come to socialize. They knew they needed him. They had a common enemy, and on the battlefield that was all that mattered.

He chased after the second android. The idiot Namek had allowed it to sneak up on him, forcing the child to come to his aid. Vegeta allowed the Namek to settle his grudge. It had been established that Vegeta was capable of killing the android, it was irrelevant now who actually finished him off.

The Namek fought well at first, then began to drag his feet about finishing the opponent. Vegeta finally asked if he needed someone to step in and deal the final blow. These earthers were so squeamish about killing and he was getting restless. It was taking everything he had to ignore Bulma's ki. The minute he allowed himself to be aware of her presence he filled with a painful rage and his fighting became sloppy. He just wanted to finish this fight and get the hell away from here. She didn't exist. The brat didn't exist. Focus on the fight. Finish it and go.

At Vegeta's statement the Namek finally realized he was hesitating and moved to prove he was capable of ending the fight. Just when it looked like Vegeta might finally get out of there they all turned to look at something approaching from behind.

/NOW WHAT?!/ He yelled inwardly in frustration.

He looked over to see the super saiyan boy who'd killed Frieza flying up behind him.

"Trunks is back!" The Namek called.

/Trunks?/ Vegeta's mind absorbed the statement. /He has the same name as my son./

He slowly connected the dots. /A super saiyan. From the future?/

Vegeta looked over at the boy and quickly compared his features with what he'd seen in the few glances he'd had of his own boy.

/Of course! It HAS to be! He's my son!/

He pushed down the new wave of grief rushing through him. Until that moment his son had, in his mind, remained a baby. He hadn't allowed himself to project that baby growing up. Pictured it becoming a man without him. But here before him stood the proof that it would happen. Here was his grown boy. His son... and he was a super saiyan! His heart simultaneously swelled with pride and sank into renewed hatred for the woman. How would his son ascend if she raised him as a human?!

He finally realized the boy was talking.

Trunks stared down at the android. "Even though I've never seen him before, I can tell that he's one of Dr Gero's creations.

"What do you mean you haven't **seen** him before?" Vegeta demanded. "Isn't he one of the androids you **warned** us about?!"

The boy explained and Vegeta raged. The only thing worse than finding out he was battling the wrong opponent was seeing the fear in his boy's eyes as he talked about the right ones. What had his son become? The stronger an opponent the more exciting the battle. THAT was the natural saiyan response. This boy was acting like a human! Vegeta fumed that this could have happened to his progeny.

Vegeta looked down at the cornered android, deciding how best to eliminate him quickly so they could all move on to the REAL fight. Suddenly the android looked over Vegeta's shoulder at an aircraft. Vegeta looked inside. It was her! And she had his son with her.

He felt the stabbing rage rushing through him again. /No!/ He fought the emotion back. If he let emotion seep into his movements he'd become sloppy and humiliate himself in front of the boy.

He looked back at the android and retreated into the serenity of the ascension. She was nothing to do with him. /Ignore the creature. Focus on the fight./ He reminded himself of his agenda. /Fight. Win. Leave./ He retreated deeper and deeper, blocking her completely from his mind and letting the calm, powerful super saiyan instincts completely take over.

He hovered over his former opponent. Minutes ago the android could have killed Vegeta easily, now he was wounded, frightened, cornered. This was no longer a fight. This was predator and prey. He watched the prey, leaving his warrior mindset and allowing his predator instincts to take over.

Vegeta grinned coldly, there was nothing but instinct left in him now. /Time to finish this. I am ready for the next opponent./

The cornered android threw a desperate blast at the aircraft creating a loud explosion and distracting the other fighters.

Vegeta's predatory grin didn't falter. He kept his eyes fixed solidly on the prey, waiting for the perfect moment to strike the final blow.

The smoke from the explosion washed slowly across, blocking his view for a fraction of a second.

The android vanished.

Vegeta's eyes darted about furiously. /Where did he go?! How could he have escaped so quickly?/

He flew to the android's last position and frantically searched for tracks. His ears listened intently for his footfalls, but there was nothing.

Suddenly the boy appeared. Yes! Surely he couldn't have escaped the notice of BOTH super saiyans. He turned his attention to the boy. "Did you see him?"

"The boy stared angrily at him. "Why didn't you save them Vegeta?"

"What? Who?" Vegeta kept looking for signs of the android.

"Bulma and your son!" He shouted. "Why didn't you try to save them?!"

"I don't have time to worry about that fool woman and her blasted child!" He yelled. How could the boy let himself be distracted from a fight?! A saiyan should never let ANYTHING come between him and victory! Who RAISED this boy?

Vegeta frustratedly continued searching for his rightful prey as the others stood about chatting. Was he the ONLY one who actually came here today to defeat the androids? Finally he heard someone yelling out.

"Hey! Bulma says the android is really Dr Gero!"

Vegeta paused only a fraction of a second before he flew down. Any information on the enemy was valuable, even if it came from her. He maintained his ascension, hoping no one would notice. He knew it was a waste of energy, but he still didn't feel able to look at her without having the ascension to calm him.

"What? How could you possibly know that?" He snapped at her. Even as he wrapped his mind in the calming power the painful rage kept leaking through. The baby looked at him and he avoided eye contact.

He refocused his mind, processing the new information. He KNEW she had been silenced too easily when they'd learned of the androids all those years ago! She had wanted to use cowardly methods and eliminate the threat before it began, but he and Kakarot had overruled her.

That scheming creature. He knew it! He had kept such a close eye on her but she had been keeping him so 'distracted'. A little memory of her panting his name against his skin in that voice that bent him to her every whim filled him with new hatred. He tried to pull further into the ascension. He should have known she was sneaking around behind his back to deny him his victory! She had simply been covering her bases. Ensuring his loyalty in case she failed to stop Dr Gero on her own.

He watched the other fighters easily being fooled as she fed them a story about having seen the doctor once in a magazine years ago. Vegeta eyed her, allowing the ascension to keep him calm. Bulma finally confirmed his suspicions by revealing she now knew where the doctor's lab was. Years ago she hadn't had any information on him, she had even wanted to use the dragon balls to find him. Now it seemed she was an expert on everything related to the doctor and his movements.

Scheming, calculating, always ten steps ahead...

Vegeta glared at the ground. How had he not seen through her?

He wanted to get out of here. He came to fight. He didn't want to see her. The woman began to reintroduce her cowardly plan to eliminate the threat before it started. Vegeta felt the scene from three years ago repeating. It hadn't worked then and it wouldn't work now. He shot her idea down and waited for the other saiyan to instinctively back him up as Kakarot had.

The boy took the woman's side. /WHAT?!/ Vegeta raged. /What kind of saiyan ARE you?!/

He yelled angrily and left.

A few minutes later the boy appeared behind him. Well, that was at least something. He wanted to join the fight. Vegeta smirked. He looked at his grown son. The boy had enormous strength, obviously entirely the result of Vegeta's flawless royal genes.

They finally drew close to where the opponents were likely to be. The boy began to cower and whine again. He threw out schemes on joining forces to guarantee their chances. Vegeta looked angrily at his son. He was STILL acting like a HUMAN!

No, Vegeta thought, it was more than that... He was acting like that woman! And even worse was the way he responded to her demands like he was accustomed to being directed by her.

Vegeta felt his mind finally connecting the remaining dots. The boy had come from the future... That implied a time machine... Where would he get such a device on earth? He felt it all coming together.

/The time machine! The woman must have built it! She must have survived the first android attack as well. A calculating creature like her wouldn't be so easily killed. She must have sent Trunks back in it! She had used his son to save her world!/

/Wait a minute.../ Vegeta began to make more connections. /OF COURSE! It finally makes sense!/

That was why she had seduced him! She had seen Gohan fight on Namek! She had recognized the power of the saiyan hybrids and she had wanted to secure it for herself. She had WANTED a child from him!

/That scheming, manipulative. ..!/

Vegeta felt the hatred deepening.

So, she intended to raise his son as a fighter after all. That was at least comforting. But her plan had backfired somehow. This boy, despite his enormous inherited power he had somehow become a weakling anyway! Was he really only interested in challenging weaker opponents like Frieza? Had she taught him to only chase guaranteed, easy victories? He lacked saiyan pride. He lacked the thirst for battle. His human upbringing was holding him back.

Vegeta flew ahead, listening to his son whining and cowering. Listening to him talk as if they were hopelessly outmatched and even worse, listening to him idolizing that third class moron. Had she been so worried he would rebel against her? Did she hide his heritage? Had She told him him ANYTHING of his bloodline? The boy had no confidence! Didn't he know that to ascend at such an age proved he was already better than Kakarot? In his veins ran the blood of a purebred super saiyan warrior! Even diluted with human weakness it was formidable! They didn't need Kakarot to come and save them. Vegeta was already superior to that moron. His son needed to realize that he too could be superior. He WOULD be superior if he'd just get up and fight instead of cowering and scheming for guaranteed victories like that woman.

Vegeta began to think. This boy... This boy was ready to learn if his true heritage. He had strength, now he just needed pride. Vegeta needed to bring out the saiyan in him. The boy needed to be shown how a true saiyan warrior fights. Vegeta smirked. He had new purpose now. Forget that woman and her pathetic brat! Let her scheme. Let her try to build a saiyan without pride who obeys her every command. Now it was time for Vegeta to take over. It was HIS turn. This was his son! This super saiyan! All he needed was a little toughening up and he'd be ready to strike fear into the hearts of every fighter in the galaxy. Vegeta smiled wider. He was finally excited about something again. He was ready to teach this boy what he could be.


	28. Chapter 28

Vegeta stared at the sky as the telltale darkness swept across. The dragon had been awakened. He looked on from his distant vantage point, waiting for his son's ki to reappear.

He was dead, Vegeta hadn't killed him, but he might as well have. The monster, Cell, that destroyed his son had been of Vegeta's own making. He looked back over the past two years. In the end all he had taught his boy was that his father was a fool. He clenched his fists as another wave of shame swept through him.

He watched Kakarot's son, standing tall and strong among the other fighters. Even that moron had been a better father. He thought back, running the comparison over and over.

When something threatened his boy Kakarot had fought to the death to protect him. Vegeta had repeatedly ignored the threat and focused on his own interests. When there was a battle coming Kakarot had set his own training aside to prepare his son. Vegeta had ignored his boy and focused on himself. Again and again he had had opportunities to be a father to that boy. TWO YEARS of opportunities. And he had let them slip by. And now his son was dead and Vegeta was to blame.

Vegeta's eyes lit slightly as he felt Trunks' ki reappear. At least that was something. The damage from his foolish actions had been repaired. But the memory would remain. Vegeta had been shown to be no better than that idiot Hercule. Strutting up to a hopelessly outmatched battle full of overconfidence. He was not a true warrior. He was not worthy to be called a saiyan. He was just an echo of the saiyans.

He watched his son. He knew he was returning to his time soon and Vegeta wanted to say goodbye but not in front of everyone. He would wait until the boy was alone. Trunks flew down from the lookout together with the other fighters and Vegeta followed a safe distance away.

Trunks flew to the Capsule Corp compound where he was quickly set upon by the Briefs. Vegeta hung back and waited. Eventually Bulma approached with the baby and offered to trim his hair in preparation for the journey back.

She moved them to the lawn and prepared to trim Trunks' long, purple hair. Vegeta watched as she set the baby down for a nap. He thought about the woman and his infant son. For all her cold schemes she was still better qualified than him to raise the boy. He knew that now. It was obvious Trunks respected and loved her. He watched the way she cared for and mothered both boys. They responded to her. How she must be gloating right now. Had she been allowed to enact her schemes Trunks would never have needed to be resurrected. A resurrection made possible by her dragon radar. All her prophesies had come true. The enemy had been exactly what she predicted.

He kept his ki masked and drew closer, taking a position among the branches of a tree so he could hear her gloating to the boy of his idiot father who nearly got **ANOTHER **planet blown to pieces. Who had to have a little boy come and kill his enemy for him **AGAIN**.

Bulma cut in silence.

Trunks sat silently as well for a long while as Bulma cut his hair, then finally he spoke. "Hey, mom?"

"Yes?" She responded.

"There's something I've been wondering."

"Shoot!" She smiled.

"What's the deal with father. How come you're so okay with the way he just ignores you both?"

She paused a minute before answering. "Oh, well you gotta promise to keep it a secret okay? It's not something everyone knows. The truth is that's my own doing. He's just mad at me because I threatened to kill him, that's all." She said the words cheerfully as she snipped the long purple strands.

"What?! Why?"

"He wandered into my lab one day and saw the baby you in your crib. He wasn't supposed to find out about you yet and I guess I kind of panicked. I was worried he might try to send you to another world like a saiyan baby. So, fearless mother that I am, I told him that if he tried it I'd hunt him down and kill him. Nobody's taking my beautiful baby boy! Anyway he's been mad at me ever since."

/Don't be absurd, woman!/ Vegeta thought, /As if I would care if some female threatened to kill me! Do you know how many foes have threatened my life?/

She continued to cut his hair as Trunks absorbed the information.

"What do you mean, he wasn't supposed to find out?" He finally said. "Didn't you tell him about the baby?"

"Oh, no way!" She laughed.

"What?! Why?!" Trunks stared at her in disbelief. "Mom, why on earth didn't you tell him about me?"

/Because she planned it! She planned it ALL!/ Vegeta thought.

Bulma paused. Her false cheer disappeared and for a long time it seemed like she wouldn't answer, but then she slowly exhaled and began. "Do you know how Goku got married?" She asked quietly.

/What does Kakarot have to do with anything?/ Vegeta wondered.

"What? Goku ? Uh, no. I uh..." Trunks trailed off, slightly confused by the seeming tangent.

"He met Chi Chi when we were kids." Bulma said as she snipped further with the scissors. "They were only together for a few minutes but she fell for him right away. She asked him if one day he'd come back and "make her a bride' and Goku agreed without thinking." Bulma giggled. "He thought a bride was a kind of food."

Vegeta gawked. That moron never failed to push the boundaries of stupidity.

Trunks laughed. "Woah. No way. Haha!"

"Anyway he didn't think about it again until she came to collect." Bulma surprised Vegeta by looking a little sad as she continued to cut. "She showed up out of the blue one day and made him come good on his promise. Goku was his usual self. He just went along with it, smiling the whole way. Before you knew it they were married. "

She paused. "He was happy. I knew he was happy. Goku would have been happy anywhere, but I... I hated her for doing that to him. He had been so gloriously free. To me it was like he was the essence of pure freedom. So untouchable! Laughing up there on his little cloud. Soaring above the rest of the world like some amazing bird! He belonged there! And he would have stayed there if she hadn't caged him." Bulma's face scrunched in anger.

Vegeta watched her in further amazement. /... caged?/ He wondered. She thought that Kakarot had been caged? He watched the fiery rage burning in her eyes. She was telling the truth.

"I hated her! How could she be so selfish! How could she just trap him? Tie him down like that? Locking him up in that little house... It was wrong! It was cruel! I let myself get so self righteous. I told myself she was inexcusable! That I'd never do ANYTHING like that..."

Her anger suddenly seemed to drain, leaving her deflated. Her eyes slowly filled with pain like they had when she and Vegeta had been together. Vegeta was taken aback again. He remembered that expression.

"...and then your father arrived." She said it with a slight quiver in her voice.

Bulma went quiet a moment as she tried to push the sadness back inside. Pain fluttered on and off her face...

Vegeta stared in further amazement. She was standing behind the boy where Trunks couldn't see her. There was no reason for her to pull such a face. He was completely confused. Who WAS this woman? Where were her schemes? Where were her cold calculations?

Trunks began to turn around and a slight panic overtook Bulma as she pushed his head to face back away from her, not wanting him to see her expression.

Vegeta peered closer. This sad, vulnerable creature didn't match with his knowledge of Bulma at all!

She began to snip at Trunks' hair again. "I didn't even notice him at first. Well, I thought he was kind of hot, but I kept reminding myself he was just a rude, stubborn, bossy know it all from another planet. I just figured I'd get him to fight for us and that'd be it."

Vegeta watched uncertainly. This was a slight improvement. They were at least the right words, but it was still completely the wrong voice. What was wrong with her!?

She continued softly. "But then I broke up with my boyfriend. And I was all drunk and angry. And I let my guard drop, just for a few seconds."

Trunks began to look a little awkward, obviously projecting the next events in his head.

"Your father came into my lab. He wasn't supposed to be in there!" She said with genuine anger creeping through the pain. Vegeta's mind flashed to that night. As he recalled, nothing of interest had happened.

"And then he was just standing there, right in front of me and in a stupid, drunk moment..." She paused and her face filled with guilt. "...I looked at him."

Vegeta gawked /That was it?!/

Trunks' eyes widened. He had also obviously expected something far more sensational to account for all the build up.

Bulma looked completely ashamed. "I had been working so hard not to look at him, I knew what he was. I knew it. But in that one, drunk little second I let myself look at him. That was all it took. After that it was like I couldn't stop looking at him."

Vegeta watched her face looking wracked with guilt like she was confessing to some horrible crime.

What did looking at him have to do with anything?

Bulma continued. "He was just so strong and smart and handsome and he was just everything I never dreamt of all rolled into one. He was the first man I'd ever met that wasn't scared of me at all! Before I knew it he was all I could think about."

Vegeta started. /What?/ Had she actually just said what he thought she did? /Strong and smart and handsome?/

"I fought it. I fought it so hard with everything in me, but it kept getting stronger. He was just so incredible!" The guilt persisted on her face even as a little blush dusted at her cheeks. She was serious!

Vegeta felt a tiny smile playing at the corners of his mouth. Her words slowly began to re-inflate his bruised ego. /So now I'm incredible.../

"The more I thought about him the tighter I wanted to hold on to him." She went on. "I knew he was leaving, but all I could think about was seeing him each day before he did. I even started to force him to spend time with me. I used dirty tricks, programmed his equipment to deny him the ability to ignore me."

Vegeta remembered that. He had never considered it before... Why exactly had she been so determined to see him every day? This version of their story was slowly becoming more and more believable.

"I could feel myself getting out of control. I could feel myself unconsciously trapping him. I knew I was annoying him. He was trying to do something important and I kept interrupting his training. I finally realized I would have to go."

/Go?/ Vegeta wondered.

"I was holding him back. I knew it. It had been a year already and he had hardly gotten anywhere all because I kept hanging off of him like a stupid teenager with a crush."

Vegeta thought back to how grateful he had been for her 'interruptions'. They had been all that was keeping him sane in the silent GR room. Did she really think she had been holding him back?

Bulma's expression became set as she remembered. "I set the date. I made an excuse about having to go away and asked dad to take over for me. I decided I'd just have one day. One perfect day with him and then I'd go and leave him in peace. I had it all planned. I got up early. I even brought a cake."

Vegeta's memory shot to that day she had arrived with the giant cake. His body surprised him as his gut twisted in retrospective pain at the thought of how close he had come to losing her. What was with that pain? Why should he care if that scheming creature had intended to leave?

Bulma continued "And then I was standing in front of him, saying goodbye and I just... I just thought how incredible it would be if he held me. Just once. But the stubborn jerk wouldn't do it!"

Vegeta remembered that too. The way she had suddenly insisted he pick her up. As if it was the only way to prove he could control his strength. Surely there were less intimate ways he could have proven it.

Bulma carried on. "I started to get mad. It wasn't such a big request, was it? It wasn't like I wanted him to kiss me or anything! I started to act in anger. I started pushing and before I knew it I was kissing him!"

/Well, there's the understatement of the millennium!/ Vegeta thought with a smirk. / As I recall you did quite a bit more than just kiss me./

"I realized I was going too far and I tried to get out of there but one thing led to another and ... I think he just decided to let me get it out of my system. I could tell he wasn't really into it but I guess he figured he should just get it over with. We had a one night stand."

/NOT REALLY INTO IT?!/ His mind exclaimed. /Were you even there?! I was so excited I ASCENDED!/

Bulma suddenly blushed. "Ah! Sorry... This must be kind of weird to hear from your mom..."

"Oh, N-No, that's okay." Trunks said, blushing a little as well.

Bulma paused awkwardly and then continued. "Anyway... instead of helping that stupid night made it a thousand times worse! I finally realized how far above me he was. How insignificant I was to him. I know that should have made me stop wanting him but instead in my mind he turned instantly from just a great guy into an impossible dream. I loved him! He was all I could think about! There was no one but him."

Vegeta's stomach did a pleased little flip. All this time he had thought he was the more affected one, but apparently not. /A human really is no match for a saiyan./ He thought with another cocky smirk.

He felt his eyes wandering over her form without his permission again..

She continued. "He left to train elsewhere after that and I didn't see him again for six months. In those six months i got a chance to settle my feelings. I knew it was pointless. He didn't want a silly human. He didn't think of me that way I mean, he didn't even bother to tell me when he first ascended."

/I didn't tell you because you were right there!/ Vegeta fumed.

"I only found out when he channeled the ascension into me to keep me from boring him to death."

/BORING? I THOUGHT I WAS BORING YOU!/

"Channeled...?" Trunks asked.

Bulma blushed. "Oh no! Didn't your Mom ever... But surely Gohan has a girlfriend by now?"

"Uh, well there hasn't really been much time for all that." Trunks said bashfully.

"Oh wow! That's so sad! Being a super saiyan and having nobody to share it with." Bulma looked pityingly at her son. "When your father used to ascend with me it was like in those few minutes I was really able to match him. I mean, it would end and he'd go back to being him and I'd go back to being me and I'd remember the gap between us. But in those minutes, when my body would get all strong... All I can say is I hope you find someone to share your gift with someday. Heaven knows she'll never want another guy after that!" She laughed and Trunks blushed brightly, absorbing the new information.

"Anyway I knew I had gotten myself into a one sided love but after that night I just didn't care anymore. He was worth getting hurt over. I left, like I had promised myself I would, but a few days later dad called and told me Vegeta had already left anyway. So I went home. Completely lovesick. And I tried to just go back to normal life."

"And then, six months later he just suddenly came back." She looked ashamedly at the floor. "That idiot! Why couldn't he just have stayed away..."

"He caught me completely off guard again! It was like before I knew it I was throwing myself at him! He put up with it again. He just decided to have a little fun with me. I knew that was all it was but I didn't care. I wanted him so much! I thought I'd had it under control, but before i knew it it was happening again. All I wanted was to keep him. All I could think of was how to make him stay with me. I didn't want to think those thoughts! My stupid brain kept feeding me nasty schemes on how to make him mine. Awful, underhanded things. There was no one else in the universe worth having. There was nothing but him! It tore me apart! I wanted him! I loved him so much! I finally understood what Chi Chi went through. I finally got my payback for those mean things I used to think about her. I got to experience it for myself what it was like. Falling for a saiyan. Wanting to keep him. Wanting what I had no right to want."

Vegeta's body heated as she talked about him like he was some forbidden thing. He used to think of her the same way. Forbidden. Off limits.

/To think that all that time she was looking at me the same way./

He felt his body starting to want hers again. The urge to grab her was creeping back. The urge to take her to some distant place and...

He watched her face clear the guilt somewhat as her intellect took over. "But I had an advantage over Chi Chi. I had seen this happen from the outside before. I had seen where it led and I decided I wouldn't let it happen again. Vegeta deserves a life filled with action! That's where a saiyan belongs. He was the only free saiyan left and he only just got his freedom back! I would never take it from him. I would never do that to him! I kept thinking of all the adventures Goku could have had if he wasn't locked up in that little house and it gave me strength. I forced myself to be content with the little piece of him that he was sharing with me. And I swore that when the time came I would let him go. He didn't belong here. I refused to cage him here."

Her face filled with guilt again and she paused from cutting his hair. "And then I got pregnant."

Vegeta watched in astonishment. She looked so incredibly sad! She looked like she might even cry! Bulma's face screwed up and her eyes welled.

"I didn't do it on purpose. Not consciously. But what if some part of me did? It's not as if I hadn't thought about it! Get pregnant, force him to stay. Trap him here with me forever. I loved him with every part of me, that means I probably loved him in my subconscious as well. What if some part of my mind deliberately ... " her voice cracked and she paused to regain composure.

Finally she clenched her fists. Her face became angry again. "I BUILT that stupid pod! I should have KNOWN that it would affect my birth control!"

She lowered her head in shame and whispered. "How could I not have seen it... I MUST have seen it..."

Vegeta felt a wave of guilt running through him for the things he had thought. /So she didn't plan it after all.../

"Oh, Mom..." Trunks said sympathetically. "There's no way you would have done that. It was just a mistake, that's all."

Bulma brushed at her eyes and exhaled. She began to cut his hair again. "Anyway... " she finally composed herself enough to carry on. "I decided that what was done was done, but there was still no WAY I was going to do what Chi Chi did. And plus there was really no reason to say anything. Something tells me Vegeta wouldn't be all that into changing diapers. Saiyan children are sent away for the first few years of their life. They don't really meet up with their parents until they're ready to fight in battle."

/Don't be absurd!/ Vegeta thought. /That was FRIEZA'S scheme. He was the one profiting from the planet trade! He forced us to send our young away! Once the transformation wore off most died of exposure and starvation within days! If they survived the first month they were often hunted down by the locals! As if I would let that happen to my son! My own brother came back so starved and sickly he could never fight again! Frieza did it to keep us weak and make a profit on the side! They were clearing worlds for him to sell!/

"I can use my equipment to teach my Trunks strength and speed, and the other z fighters can show him stance and fighting technique. I'll make him into a mighty super saiyan warrior like you! A son Vegeta will be proud to call his."

Trunks looked at the floor bashfully at the open complement.

"And then one day, when he's strong enough, my little Trunks will track down his old man too!" She laughed. "Vegeta can take over training him after that if he wants to, or knowing him he'll probably just kick his butt and send him packing. Either way he'll be free."

She folded her arms decidedly and smiled a melancholy smile. "The way a saiyan deserves to be."

The last sad, gentle smile took Vegeta's breath away. He finally saw the incredible power with which she had loved him all this time.

/That... That infuriating woman! Deciding things all on her own.../ His heart ached. Why couldn't she just have said something? Did she have to be so cursedly stubborn? Why did she insist on fighting all alone? He gazed at her. She had never even CONSIDERED that he might want her as much as she wanted him.

"You've really got it all worked out, huh?" Trunks said. "You've factored in everything like you always do."

"Well, you're mother happens to be a genius!" She said proudly.

"But you forgot one variable. " He said.

"Huh? What's that?" She asked.

"What if he was in love with you?" Trunks asked.

That got Bulma's attention.

"In my timeline, mom said Father loved her." The boy added.

Vegeta clenched his jaw. /Yes! Idiot woman! Did you really NEVER consider that?!/

Bulma's eyes widened slightly as she looked down at the boy.

Vegeta felt his breath catch in his throat. Was she finally considering it? He leaned in closer, his heart skipping nervously as he watched her process the boy's words.

Finally she spoke. "Uhm, well, things were very different in your timeline. They didn't know the androids were coming. They probably spent a lot more time together. I bet he fell totally in love with her."

"Oh mom?" Trunks laughed. "Wow, you look like I just said I believe in the tooth fairy!"

"No, really! It was probably completely different." She said nervously. "He probably loved her very much."

"Okay. Okay. I get it. Just stop doing that!" He laughed his awkward, timid laugh. "It's fine already. She was just telling me what I wanted to hear."

Bulma looked ashamed. "Oh wow your mom's gonna come all the way here and kill me! I shouldn't have told you this."

"No, I'm glad you did." Trunks said. "Truthfully I think I always knew it wasn't true."

/Now she's infecting the BOY with her idiocy!/ Vegeta fumed.

"Don't be mad at her." Bulma said in her new found 'motherly' tone. "It wasn't just what you wanted to hear. I think it was what you needed to hear. You were a little boy defending your world against overwhelming odds. You needed a hero to make you brave and she gave you one. I know it's what I would have done."

Trunks smiled at the floor. "I guess you're right."

/NO! She's wrong! I wanted her! I STILL want her!/ Vegeta stopped suddenly at the realization. /... I still.../

"Your father he loves us both in his own way." Bulma offered, "But he doesn't want to stay here. You should have seen his face when he accidentally found out about the baby, that awful expression as he felt the responsibility settle onto his shoulders. It was like his whole world was over. That's when I knew I had done the right thing." She said.

"Is that why you push him away?" Trunks asked. "I only say it because, well you seem kind of hard on him sometimes. Especially when it comes to baby me."

"My son is such a smart boy." Bulma confirmed, stepping back from him to take a last look at his hair. She smiled. "But your father can be a stubborn fool when he wants to be. If he decided he had some sort of duty to stay here there'd be nothing anyone could do to make him leave. He needs to leave. He deserves to live his life."

"So that's the whole story." Trunks said smiling.

"That's it! And just in time too." Bulma set the scissors down. "You're all done! I think you look very handsome if I do say so myself. What do you think?" She handed him a mirror.

Trunks obediently examined his reflection a second. "Wow, thank you. It's great! What do YOU think father?"

Bulma's stopped dead and turned pale.

Vegeta froze.


	29. Chapter 29

Trunks laughed and looked directly at Vegeta's hiding spot. "Come on Father! I know you're there! I've spent my whole life being chased by androids. You're going to have to work a lot harder than that to sneak up on me!"

"Trunks!" Bulma yelled. "Don't make jokes like that. That's not funny!" Her face filled with panic.

Trunks laughed.

Vegeta folded his arms and walked in with a scowl. /Curse that boy! /

Bulma's expression turned to recognition and then pain. "Vegeta. .. H-How long were you over there?"

Vegeta glared at her. "Long enough to learn of your schemes to get rid of me." He said, then instantly regretted it as he watched her eyes begin to mist. This was going all wrong! /THAT BLASTED BOY!/

Bulma's misty eyes began to well up. Her lips quivered a second. Then suddenly the fighter in her reared up. "No!" The word seemed to be wrenched from deep inside her.

Vegeta's heart swelled with renewed love for his beautiful warrior.

Her tears vanished and her eyes became cold and threatening as they had when she stood between him and the baby. "Leave." She said icily.

Vegeta knew the warmth behind that ice now. He smirked. "I am a prince. I go where I please, woman. And it pleases me to stay."

Her icy eyes intensified as she desperately persisted in her bluff. "You aren't wanted here Vegeta. It's time for you to go."

If he hadn't only just seen Bulma declaring her undying love for him the sheer force of her gaze would have easily convinced Vegeta that she hated him to her core. She looked **incredibly** deadly. She looked like a cold, lethal saiyan warrior.

Vegeta's saiyan mind took that and combined it with the knowledge that she was his. The resultant emotion was not quite the one she had been trying to cause.

/She's just so ... so incredibly hot!/

He watched his woman looking ridiculously sexy, glaring terrible threats at him like a warrior. As if he could leave after seeing her looking like that!

He smiled a dark, passionate smirk and drew closer. "Know your place woman. You do not control my movements. I have decided to remain here."

The ice in her eyes turned to a raging fire. Vegeta shuddered as his body burned. He hadn't imagined it was possible for her to look more dangerous than she had, but now she looked like she was ready to grab the nearest sharp implement and gut him where he stood! If Trunks hadn't been watching he would have jumped her right there and then.

"LEAVE!" She shouted, holding her ground as he was drawn closer and closer. "Or, so help me Vegeta, I'll call Gohan and have him MAKE you leave."

Vegeta reached out with a hand to tilt her chin up and run a finger across her lips. Her mask finally broke as her skin responded to the contact. A desperate pain filled her face. "No." She whispered with pleading eyes. " Please Vegeta. You need to go. I'll never forgive you if you throw your life away because of me."

Vegeta's fingers felt the little shivers running through her as she begged. His dark smirk disappeared and his eyes filled with something deeper. /Still fighting all alone.../

"I am free to choose my own path. And I choose this one." He whispered as he leaned in to kiss her.

"Nn-ng" Bulma saw his approach and felt herself about to cry, she pushed his hand away and leaped back. Her fists clenched at her sides and a stubborn anger replaced her tears. "No! I won't let you!" She yelled. "I'm NOT going to keep you here! You don't BELONG here! You belong out there! Living! Fighting!"

Vegeta scowled. "I want to fight at your side." He snapped.

Trunks' eyes widened. The saiyan half of him instantly understood. "Father..."

Bulma turned to Trunks. "Trunks! Talk some sense into him! You can't let him do this out of some idiot sense of duty!"

"But mom! I don't think he's doing it out of duty!" Trunks replied.

"Of course he is! He's got it into his head that he owes me something! And he's going to ruin his life because of it!" She faced Vegeta again. "I can raise you a son ten times stronger than you can imagine! I've built a super saiyan before, I can do it again! I've got this! I want to do this! Just leave and let me do it!"

Vegeta's face contorted in confused pain. Did she want him or not?

"Father, she doesn't understand." Trunks said. "I think you need to tell her again."

Vegeta glared at him in protest.

"Please father. Just tell her again." Trunks said gently.

"Aargh! You are by far the most **idiotic** genius in the galaxy!" He snarled.

Bulma fumed "Hey! Listen up Mister! I-"

"Mom! Please, just listen to him." Trunks placated.

Bulma stopped, unfamiliar with the sensation of realizing there was something she wasn't understanding.

She folded her arms defensively and stared at Vegeta.

Vegeta felt suddenly very exposed. "Tch!" He scoffed as he approached her, shooting another indignant glare at his son.

He stood directly in front of her and stared into her eyes, then let his mask slip away revealing a deep longing. "I want to always fight at your side." He said in his gravelly whisper.

Bulma looked up at his earnest expression with a furrowed brow, running the calculations in her head for an appropriate translation. She could see that whatever he was trying to say was important to him, but she still didn't get what fighting had to do with anything.

"Blasted woman!" Vegeta's face twisted in embarrassment at the realization that he was going to have to make it simpler.

His mind shot back to the speech he had prepared so long ago. /Just perfect! It would figure she'd make me say it in front of the brat!/

He felt Trunks' eyes on him. "Stop your gawking, boy!" He shouted.

"Oh!" Trunks started and quickly turned around, blushing.

Vegeta grimaced and wrapped a hand around Bulma's arm. He pulled her in closer to whisper in her ear even though he knew full well it would make little difference against Trunks' hearing. He decided to shorten the speech to the bullet points.

"Against anything." He whispered. "I want to face it together with you. Because you belong at my side." He planted a feather light kiss on her cheek. "Will you stand with me against anything that comes?"

Bulma's breathing caught. She blushed brightly and pushed him back to look into his eyes. "You... "

Vegeta glared back at her awkwardly.

He kept his grip on her arm and grabbed her other arm to hold her up as her knees buckled. "Y-You really want me there?" She asked in a soft whimper.

/Finally!/ He narrowed his gaze. "I said I did, didn't I?!" He snapped. "Do NOT make me repeat it a third time!"

He looked at her. He had expected an answer, but instead she just froze in place like he had flicked the off switch.

Vegeta turned to Trunks, "Now what?!" He yelled frustratedly.

Trunks quickly whipped around to face away again after being caught peeking. "Uhm... I think, just give it a second." He said uncertainly, his ears burning red with shy embarrassment.

Vegeta complied. He stood glaring at her, tapping his foot impatiently as he continued to support her shaky frame. Eventually Bulma started darting her eyes back and forth, re-running all her calculations.

After what seemed like an absurdly long time she surprised him by suddenly grabbing him by his armor and dragging him to meet her gaze.

"Promise me." She demanded and glared seriously into his eyes. "You promise me right here and now before anything else that if there's ever anywhere you'd rather be...Promise me you'll go!"

/Go?!/ Vegeta yelled inwardly. /Are your ears functioning?! I just told you I want to stay!/

"I will not obey your every whim!" He snapped.

"No!" She stared intensely at him. "You need to promise me NOW Vegeta! Any battle.. any opponent... any place you want to be. I don't EVER want to catch you looking at the sky the way Goku used to. You promise me you'll go!"

/Now she's comparing me to that moron again!/ Vegeta scowled. He could see she wasn't going to let this go. He growled. "Fine! Blasted woman! If the urge strikes me I will not hesitate to leave you!"

Bulma stood silently a while longer. She continued to glare into his eyes but he could see her still running more calculations. At least she had her feet under her now and he released his grip on her arms. Vegeta stood, waiting for her next move with an irritated expression.

Finally she slowly stepped closer. She raised shaking arms and wrapped them hesitantly around him. Vegeta looked down, this seemed like it was probably good.

After a few more seconds she began to whisper against his collarbone. "Then I'll fight at your side for as long as you'll have me there." She was still shaking as she drew him closer, slowly tightening her embrace with each word.

Vegeta's heart overflowed with the old contented joy he used to feel with her and he finally released the breath he was holding. "Well, it's about time, woman." He said, putting an arm around her waist and turning so that Trunks wouldn't see the relieved smile on his features.

Bulma stood a few seconds just holding him. He could feel little shivers running through her as she kept loosening and then tightening her grip. She knew she should let go but she didn't want to yet. He smiled, knowing she must be still coming to terms with the idea that she was allowed to hold him now.

He glanced over at Trunks with a self assured smirk. Trunks didn't look pleased. He was looking at Bulma with a furrowed brow.

The boy probably wasn't thrilled that his mother had chosen Vegeta. That stung a little, but he wouldn't let it stop him.

/Tough luck, kid! She's mine and I'll never let her go./ Vegeta thought.

"Wait a minute..." Bulma surprised Vegeta again by suddenly pulling away. She seemed to look through him into a distant memory. "... But, before you even knew about the baby you... " She looked back at him. "You said that... You said..."

Vegeta broke eye contact and looked away awkwardly.

Bulma whispered his name in that 'special' way that sent little shivers through him. He looked back to see intelligent, blue eyes filling with astonishment and... something new before she flung her arms around his neck to kiss him. The kiss caught him off guard for a second. It lacked her usual flawless control. It was shaky and passionate and he felt little noises coming from deep in her as she continued to press into him. It was like this was the first time she'd ever really let herself kiss him. She pulled away breathlessly and Vegeta saw that she was crying. He gawked at her. He had seen her come near to tears many times but he had never seen her actually cry before.

"I'll f-fight..." She panted as she hiccuped through the tears. "I'll fight right beside you for as long as there's life in me. I'll fight anything! I'll fight forever!" She grabbed him close again and held him tightly, continuing to sob ad hiccup against him.

Vegeta froze a second in panic. How had it gone wrong so quickly? The kiss was good, the words were good, but Vegeta knew crying was definitely very, very bad! He turned in an angry, confused panic to Trunks for a solution. Somehow he'd messed it up and now she was crying!

Trunks smiled brightly. "She understands now."

Vegeta looked back at her. What was there to understand? Hadn't she understood before? What was with this crying all of a sudden?! Crying was bad! This boy was no help at all!

He started to peel her off of him. "S-Stop tha-"

"No!" Trunks interrupted. "It's okay, father. Just let her get it out."

Vegeta glared at him in a mixture of rage and disbelief. /Get it out?! Get WHAT out?! Idiot boy! Crying is bad!/

He looked back at Bulma's sobbing form, then back at his son's smile, hesitating for the right move. The boy seemed to think crying was good! When did crying become good?! Was it a human thing? That was idiotic!

Why couldn't she just have been a normal saiyan woman in a normal saiyan body?! These humans were so blasted confusing! He started to wonder just what ELSE was going to be lost in translation between their species after Trunks left.

A second later baby Trunks began to fuss, awake from his nap.

Bulma quickly broke their embrace and ran over to the infant, leaving a cold empty space in front of Vegeta's body. "Oh! Look who's awake!" Her tears were brushed away in an instant and she began to cheerfully coo and giggle with the little baby as she gathered him up. Vegeta stood alone, debating whether he was supposed to be upset or grateful that the crying had stopped. He decided to worry about it later.

He stood silently watching her giggling with the baby a while and began feeling slighly out of place.

"Hey little guy! Guess what?" Bulma continued to talk as if the baby understood her. "Your daddy's going to train you! You're going to learn to fight like a real saiyan!"

Vegeta suddenly paled. "What?"

"What do you mean, 'what'? You didn't actually think I would let you sit around and goof off for the rest of your life did you?" Bulma stared over at him with a challenging glare. "No way! It was one thing when you were preparing to fight the androids but that ship has sailed! You're a father now. It's time for you to shape up Mister!"

Vegeta felt himself being swept along in her pace again.

"I meant what I said about the sky, but in between that you'd better be ready to pull your weight around here! I didn't just have my son's adorable little tail removed for nothing! I've decided he's going to be a super saiyan! He's going to need training and I expect YOU to train him." She turned her attention back to the baby and began to babble at it again. "That's right! A big strong super saiyan! Just like daddy! That's you!"

Vegeta looked at the baby. She actually wanted him to train it? After all the dismal parenting failures he'd made? He looked nervously at future Trunks. The boy stared longingly at the baby, then looked sadly away. Vegeta could see he wished the changes he'd made could have translated into his own timeline. He wanted to have what this Trunks had. Vegeta stared at him in amazement. How could he still want him as a father? After everything he'd done? These earth creatures were so... forgiving.

Perhaps forgiveness wasn't such a weakness after all.


	30. Chapter 30

Vegeta had decided.

And once he had decided something Vegeta never changed his mind.

He made his way from his training room down to her lab. "Woman!" He yelled across the room to the blue haired beauty. "You will accompany me this afternoon."

Bulma's intelligent eyes never even lifted from the contraption in front of her. "Ask nicely and I'll consider it." She said casually as she tightened a tiny screw.

"I am a PRINCE woman! I do not 'ask nicely'!" He shot back.

She finally put her screwdriver down and turned to face him, one hand on her hip, eyes full of defiance, "Well you'd better LEARN to ask nicely if you expect me to just drop everything and go with you. Where are we even going all of a sudden?"

"That is not your concern." He folded his arms across his chest and lowered his chin to meet her gaze with his own practiced glare.

Bulma cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head, a new flirtatious aura surrounding her. "A surprise, huh? Sounds interesting. Ok hot lips, I'll come."

Vegeta turned on his heel to hide the red moving on to his face /'Hot lips'?! Curse that woman and her insolent mouth!/

"You will meet me in front of the GR in one hour!" He shouted as he stomped away.

An hour and 20 minutes later Bulma sauntered out of the Capsule Corp dome to find an angry prince leaned up against the GR entrance. She smiled and walked over, unapologetic. "Well, shall we get going? I'm a busy woman you know. "

Vegeta scowled "Perhaps you would find your schedule easier if you showed up to appointments on time."

"Oh I ... Waah!" Bulma's next jab was cut short as Vegeta slid his arm around her waist and shot into the air.

"Vegeta! How many times do I have to say don't just fly me around without warning!" The ground became a blur and Bulma grabbed her hands around Vegeta's shoulders instinctively. He smiled to himself as he held her close. He knew she was well aware that there was zero chance he'd drop her. He had his ki around her protectively, nothing would touch his woman. Her soft, blue hair lay perfectly still against her head, not even fluttering in a single wisp of breeze. But rather than being impressed she just continued to yell angrily at him like the little fireball she was.

"What's wrong with taking the car now and then, huh?!" She said angrily.

"Silence woman!" Came the gruff reply. "Your primitive vehicles are slow. Weren't you just complaining about being short on time?"

"Well, where are you taking me in such a hurry?!" She yelled.

Vegeta stopped dead and landed softly at the edge of an active volcano. "Here."

Bulma peeled herself off of him and looked up in awe. It had been the middle of the afternoon when they left. Now it was a brilliant, starry night. He watched her, lit prettily by the glow of the lava, working out how far that meant they must have travelled. She shot him a begrudging sidelong look of acknowledgement. She was a little impressed. Vegeta smirked as his body filled with pride in response to the complement. So, he could still impress her after all this time.

She continued to gaze upwards a second, taking a small step back until her heel was within an inch of the precipice. His body tensed protectively as he watched on, waiting for her to notice. Finally she looked down to see the volcano.

"Uaah!" She lost her balance in her panic and nearly fell in. Vegeta caught her effortlessly and put her back on her feet.

"Clumsy human." He muttered to hide the little smile that came as he felt her cling to him gratefully.

Bulma suddenly seemed to realize he had just saved her, making her dangerously close to 'owing him one'. The fighter in her couldn't allow that. She quickly pushed away and started to try to regain the upper hand.

"Well we 'clumsy humans' don't tend to hang around in places like this. What on Earth are we doing here? You know the whole 'mysterious getaway' thing was kinda sexy at first but now I'm just over it. What are we here for?" She poked a finger into his chest "If you think you're getting laid on a volcano you've got another thing coming mister. "

"Vulgar woman!" Vegeta blushed against his will. If he was honest he supposed he'd kind of thought, maybe...

"I did not bring you half way around the planet for a simple mating session!" He yelled.

"Oh really? Because as I recall a CERTAIN saiyan prince once wanted into my panties so bad he-"

"**ENOUGH**!" Vegeta yelled.

Bulma quieted with a victorious smirk, arms folded over her chest. That same defiant, battle ready spirit permeated every inch of her.

Vegeta gazed a fraction of a second at his beautiful warrior, the warmth in his heart reaffirming his decision.

"I wish to get this over with as quickly as possible woman. Cease your incessant prattling." Vegeta met her gaze squarely, never backing down from their eternal battle of wills.

Without warning he suddenly let out a roar and ascended to super saiyan 2.

Bulma held her hand up gracefully to shield her eyes a few seconds as the burst of wind shot past her. He stood and waited until she lowered her hand, indicating her eyes had finished adjusting to the bright light emitting from his body. She perched her hands on her hips and looked at him curiously.

Vegeta's heart began to race nervously. He'd been practicing this technique for days but it had a variable success rate. /This had better work./

As she watched in confusion Vegeta suddenly knelt on one knee and drove his hand into the hardened lava rock. He pulled out a fist sized lump. Without standing up he wrapped both hands around it and began to roar again. A bright light emitted from between his fingers as he continued to pour all his strength into the rock. He felt the rock beginning to compress in his hands.

/YES! Come on... just a little more.../

This was the most dangerous part. Too much pressure or too little heat and the stone shattered.

Finally he felt the texture change. He held in the relieved sigh that threatened to give away how nervous he was and looked up at the still confused scientist watching on.

He proudly held up a clear-ish sphere.

Bulma looked down at him for a while until she realized he was waiting for her to answer.

"Oh WOW babe! Did you just make a Diamond?! Holy heck it's enormous!" She reached out and took the rock from his hand, holding it up to examine by the light of his ascended body.

Vegeta's heart leapt as she took the stone from his hand. He felt a pre-emptive smirk crossing his features but he knew the ceremony required she actually say it. "Then you accept?" He pressed.

"Huh?" Bulma was still distracted by the shiny new diamond. "Accept what?"

A small vein popped out on the kneeling super saiyan's forehead. He lept to his feet "What do you MEAN Accept what'?! I followed your pathetic ceremony to the letter! I knelt in the DIRT like a weakling! I gave you the rediculous shiny rock! Now I will NOT be kept WAITING! WILL YOU MARRY ME OR NOT?!" He straightened his arms with clenched fists at his sides and glared at her furiously.

Bulma stared at him in shock. "M-Marry..." Her eyes widened and she fumbled to keep from dropping the diamond.

She looked from Vegeta to the rock and back.

Vegeta began to panic. He suddenly realized there was a distinct possibility she might say no! He began to envision his life if she turned him down.

Some things were only desirable in theory ... the reality could be very different. He knew he wasn't the easiest person to deal with even before! But now...

His mind flashed to the night he had gasped awake from another nightmare and Bulma had finally snapped. The way she had planted kisses on his skin and pleaded with him to let her 'fight' the 'enemy' she saw hurting him. She had worked on him like that for an eternity until he finally gave in.

And before he knew it he was hiding in his ascension to keep from bawling like a child. She had listened for hours as the glowing powerful warrior lay whimpering the dark and weak things that tortured him from inside.

And now she knew.

She knew about his 'survivor guilt' as she called it. She knew he was angry and damaged from lifetime being forced to kill innocents for a monster. She knew he tortured himself endlessly for failing to ascend in time to save his world. She knew he was terrified of raising son he had already failed to protect twice. And she knew he would probably never clear the darkness from inside him.

She knew all if it. She knew everything. She had told him it made him stronger in her eyes, but Vegeta knew that couldn't be true. It was weakness. He had shown her his weaknesses.

She signed up for a warrior prince. 'Strong, smart and handsome' as she put it. Instead she found angry, guilty and damaged. Knowing all that... knowing what he really was... would she still want him?

He began to look away.

/Probably not./

Suddenly Bulma's mind seemed to catch up. "W-We'll it's about time!" She finally regained her composure, her hands moved to her hips. "Did you think I was just going to wait around forever? A beautiful, successful woman like myself has a lot of options you know."

Vegeta folded his arms defensively. "Your answer woman. Or I will withdraw the offer!"

"Well..." She smiled flirtatiously, completely unfazed. "I suppose that whole 'making diamonds with your bare hands' thing might come in handy one day... Plus you ARE pretty amazing in the bedroom... I suppose I'll accept."

Vegeta felt an overpowering relief wash over him and in its wake a happiness like nothing he had ever felt before. He let the calming ascension fall so that he could feel the wonderful emotion full force.

Bulma blinked, blind in the sudden darkness and completely missing the glorious smile of unbridled joy that her fiancé was wearing.

He paused a second to gaze at his woman.

His.

He wrapped a hand about her waist and pulled her in for a deep kiss, which she happily returned, sliding her arms around his neck and running a casual hand through his hair.

Bulma pulled away. "I have a condition."

Vegeta stared up at her, slightly annoyed that she was wearing high heels today. "What now woman?"

"None of that "until death do us part" nonsense in our vows. Gosh if we have to get married again every time one of us dies it'll lose all the romance."

Vegeta grinned. "Your terms are acceptable."

**Author note: THE END!**


	31. Chapter 31

AUTHOR'S COMMENTARY AND EXTRA DETAILS:

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Vegeta will one day tell Bulma about the warrior he fell for in her. She'll laugh in his face when h calls her a 'battle strategist', then he'll pull up some battle strategy aptitue tests from Frieza's database and Bula will get a perfect score...

Goku and Chi Chi don't know about the 'shard ascension' and neither Bulma nor Vegeta will ever tell them. ;)

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Originally there was to be a separate story from BULMA's perspective. There was a lot in that story and I'm sad to lose it but there's a few points I feel I should make:

Bulma IS a strategist, she just doesn't know that's the word for how she thinks. Throughout the story from her perspective you heard her mind race and come up with solutions (eg. "Frieza's coming... *processing*... We need to feed Vegeta. Now!). She doesn't admit that thought process to anyone. She calls it "chess boarding". Often the thoughts are stone cold and calculating. She catches herself planning out which of her closest friends should die first, second, third to maximise their chances. But they're her FRIENDS! Hell, Gohan is a little boy! They weren't chess pieces. But still, strategic attack plans would spring into her head without permission and she would feel like a cold, hard b***h for even thinking it.

Vegeta wasn't 'bad in bed' at all on their first time together. Bulma 'climaxed' three times with him.

This was a big moment for her since she had NEVER done that before. Yamcha was the only man she'd ever been with and he was so overpoweringly strong, but only had just enough control to keep from killing her. When he was withBulma she (in her head) described it as 'Rapid, painful movements she couldn't keep up with. Way too deep, way too hard. Like a piece of construction equipment trying to break me in half.' but she knew she was supposed to like having a powerful boyfriend so she just assumed it was her fault (that she just didn't like sex). She learned to use her talented hands to work on Yamcha before and during their time together as a way to 'get it over with' as quickly as possible. And she enjoys the feeling of having him all around her. It made her feel warm and safe, even if it hurt. She grits her teeth expecting Vegeta to be even more painful than Yamcha, since she knows he's even stronger. Instead he moves with incredible gentleness and precision, though she can feel the enormous power he's containing. . In those moments she again sees the gap between Vegeta (Man) and Yamcha (Boy).

She already felt insecure around Yamcha because he was the most talented human on the planet. Without hardly trying he had learned to fly, he effortlessly played professionally for big money and in his spare time he fights alongside and against alien warriors to defend the earth! And then it turns out Yamcha was completely ordinary compared to Vegeta. In the pod she wonders if she can ever be good enough for someone like Vegeta and decides she's not.

For those Yamcha fans out there, please don't be mad that I made him bad in bed. I based the concept of 'Yamcha can't control his strength' on the Buu saga. Remember how they all had to punch the machine to qualify for the tournament and everyone found it REALLY HARD to punch softly? Vegeta didn't even try to hold back. He punched the machine across the grounds and destroyed it, but I bet Vegeta was the only one who COULD HAVE punched softly if he wanted to. He married a non-fighter and yet we never see a mark on her. We also never see Vegeta break anything by mistake, even when angry or ascended, he has perfect control of his power.

For those of you who are curious, the three times are below:

First time was when she dug her nails in and yelped - Vegeta didn't feel it because he pulled out instantly and was busy panicking about having possibly injured her. Wow Bulma was embarrased when he started searching her for injuries! She REALLY didn't want to explain the real reason she'd screamed. She actually begins wondering if Vegeta might be a virgin because he doesn't seem to know why the woman he was expertly sexing suddenly screamed and dug her nails into his back.

She decides to keep going, figuring it's out of her system now and she can still salvage her dignity and match him, but before long he has her building again... She can't concentrate at all and runs her fingers repeatedly around and around his tail in endless circles, having no idea that it's a major hot spot and is driving Vegeta completely crazy. Whenever she wants to scream she bites him to stop herself because she knows if she screams he'll stop again. The biting is also driving Vegeta mad, and yet again, Bulma has no idea . Vegeta finally sends her over when he pushes the ki pulses through her - again he didn't notice, this time because he thought the throbbing he felt was his own ki pulses coming through.

At this point Bulma's completely exhausted and doesn't know how she'll carry on. She "knows" Vegeta's just getting started, but she's completely spent. Then Vegeta ascends and she gets a fresh burst of strength to keep going, together with an overwhelming heightened sensation that makes her scream like the first climax, but constantly until the end when she has a super saiyan climax that leaves her with just enough strength to whisper Vegeta's name before passing out. She, of course, doesn't know Vegeta 'came' at that moment, so when she wakes up she feels pretty pathetic (the girl who couldn't even stay awake until the end).

She wakes up alone in the bed while Vegeta is in the shower and just about dies of embarrasment... All that bragging for such a little result... Remember Vegeta gave off a VERY disinterested vibe. She had been pulling all her best moves, but instead of even looking at her, he keeps getting distracted, staring away like he's thinking about something else (he's trying to come up with a way to have her without killing her). She 'knows' he has no interest in her and only agreed to sleep with her because she "begged", saying it was okay to kill her if he wanted, if he'd just let her have this one time.

All in all Bulma finished that day completely convinced that Vegeta has ZERO attraction to her and is WAYYYY out of her league. But Bulma was always the sort to want things more BECAUSE someone said she wasn't allowed it.

Bulma fell for Vegeta when she realized he was the first man she'd ever met who wasn't threatened by her strength. (His ego was so big nothing intimidated him). She would yell and he would simply yell back. She would bend the laws of time and space with her mind (via machines) and he would bend them back again with his bare hands. No man in her life had ever fully understood how powerful she was and not made her feel like she was weird or should apologise for it. With Yamcha she always felt like she had to compete with the brainless girls he was attracted to. Like he secretly wished she was more like them. She constantly felt insecure with him and always was waiting for him to leave her for a girl he could understand.

I had a couple of great lines where she despises Yamcha for wanting a weak 'girl' so he will feel stronger compared to her, rather than a powerful 'woman' who could have helped him be stronger by adding her strength to his. She complains that if Yamcha would let her train him she'd be telling Vegeta not to get himself killed inside YAMCHA'S equipment instead of the other way around by now. She's working endlessly on Vegeta's equipment, hoping Yamcha will see how strong Vegeta's getting and realise she can help him get stronger too. But instead of admitting she's good at training fighters and letting her train him, he just gets jealous that his girlfriend is paying more attention to another guy and tries to stop her from training Vegeta.

She's basically going through the transition from wanting a 'boyfriend' to wanting someone she can build a life with. Remember by the time Bulma has Trunks she's 33 years old. She's not a little girl anymore. And when Yamcha brings up having kids she talks to her mother and then decides she wants them too. After 15 years of a simple "boyfriend / girlfriend, nothing serious" relationship she starts to actually try to take their relationship to the next level. She works incredibly hard, trying to make her and Yamcha's relationship grow, but no matter how hard she works Yamcha just doesn't get it. He still sees her as his 'girl'. He doesn't want a ' woman' because he's not yet a man. He's still a boy. He just wants a boy / girl relationship and doesn't even understand the difference between that and the kind of trust and mutual respect that makes a marriage work.

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There was also going to be a quick one shot from Trunks' perspective, but I'll sum up the main points there too:

Trunks knew his father had been hurt deeply by Bulma because of the way Vegeta wouldn't look at her (Vegeta always looks everyone in the eye, but in cell saga he hardly ever looks at Bulma unless from behind or while ascended).

Trunks obviously knew Bulma loved Vegeta because his future Mom told him she loved her Vegeta

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Well, now you know it all.


End file.
